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Rev. G. E. Hughes 


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.Clark, Dougan, 1828-1896. 
The offices of the Holy 
spirit 
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New Yor«k: 
GEORGE HUGHES & CO, 


62-65 BrBLE House. 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/officesofholyspi0Oclar 


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PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 


HIS little book is offered to the Christian public 

without any apology. The subject is a very im- 
portant one. If errors and defects shall be discovered 
in my manner of treating it, I shall not be surprised 
nor disappointed. The responsibility, both of the 
matter and the manner, rests solely with myself. 

I have here discussed the Offices of the Holy Spirit 
in His relations (1) to the unconverted world, (2) to the 
individual believer, (3) to the visible Church. The 
treatise is by no means an exhaustive one; but it has 
been my aim to give, in small compass and in simple 
language, a clear, definite and Scriptural account of the 
Holy Spirit’s work. How far I have succeeded in this 
object the reader will decide. 

_ If the sentiments expressed in the following pages 
are true, they must result in good. If they are false, 


God can over-rule them to prevent evil. 


lv PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 


The book is sent forth with earnest prayers that it 
may prove a blessing to very many souls, and promote, 


so far as its influence extends, the glorious cause of 
Christ. 
De 


WorcEstER, ENGLAND, 1878. 


PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 


AM gratified and thankful that a second edition of 
my unpretending little book is called for, only half 
a year after the publication of the first. 

With the hope of extending its circulation and use- 
fulness, it is now issued in a cheaper form. 

A. few corrections and alterations have been made, 
the titles of many of the chapters have been changed, 
some matter has been omitted, and some added. 

I have endeavored to profit by such criticisms as 
have fallen under my notice; but in all important 
particulars the book is nearly the same as at first. 

O Lord, my Heavenly Father, condescend, I pray 
Thee, for Jesus’ sake, and by the Holy Spirit, to con- 
tinue Thy blessing abundantly and increasingly upon 
this humble effort to promote the cause of truth and 


holiness in the earth. 


Ge 


LEOMINSTER, ENGLAND, 1879, 


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CHAP, 


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IV. 
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POLE: 


CONTENTS. 


WHo 18 THE Hoty SPIRIT?......... FC eee cieeeeees 
DORN OFOTH Be OPLE LIN tes savcus sececuvees: Verseteaietecstes rae 
DAPTUZRD. WITH) THE: SPIRIT mcs eeensecns cess be sess soci 
SANOTIBIRD BY (THE: OPIRIT + cic: oeii cs sesetere vests Aah eke 


MApE PERFECT IN LOVE BY THE SPIRIT 


a 


CONSECRATION AND FAITH. 


WALKING IN THE SPIRIT........ Meche re Teese esa 
DIFFICULTIES SOLVED :isccecccsccsvess AS sy aya A Te oeie 
PINDUED SE Wi hd BOOP TRE Tree sc orcas os ore aetna eek eus Bry tp: 


INDWELT BY THE SPIRIT.......cccccncccccs 


eoeerseseseeroeerre 


PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT......... sara 


THE SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH............00- 


PAGE. 


118 
136 
166 
179 
194. 


215 


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GE Huypes 


CHAPTER I. 
WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT? 


SAY who, not what, and by this mode of expression 

it may be understood at the outset that I am in- 
quiring about a person—not a thing. The Holy Spirit 
is not an influence, nor an attribute, nor an emanation, 
but a person. He is not merely a messenger proceeding 
from the Father and the Son, but one and co-eternal 
with the Father and the Son. He is not simply, as the 
etymology of the word spirit might imply, the breath of 
God, nor the abstract power of God, nor the life of God, 
nor the life of Christ—but God Himself. 

The Saviour uniformly uses the personal pronouns, 
he, him, whom, himself, in designating the Comforter or 
the Spirit of Truth—and although there are two or three 
passages in the English New Testament, in which -the 
neuter forms, itself and it, are employed in reference to 
the Spirit, yet everywhere in the Bible His personality 
is recognized and His Godhead asserted. “ Why,” said 
Peter to Ananias, “hath Satan filled thine heart to lie 
to the Holy Ghost? thou hast not lied unto men but 
unto God.” “ Whereof,” writes the author of the Epis- 
tle to the Hebrews, “the Holy Ghost also is a witness 
to us; for after that He had said before, ‘This is the 
covenant that I will make with them after those days, 
saith the Lord!’”’ In the former of these quotations the 
terms, “Holy Ghost” and “God,” in the latter, the 
terms, “ Holy Ghost” and “the Lord,” are evidently 

1 


2 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY . SPIRIT. 


used interchangeably to designate the same Almighty 
Being. And as the Holy Ghost is one with God the 
Father, He is also one with God the Son. In direct 
connection with the promise of the Comforter, the 
Saviour said to His mourning disciples, “Z will not 
leave you comfortless, J will come to you;” and His 
final parting words to them before His ascension were, 
“Lo, J am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
world.” 

The Holy Ghost is called Spirit of God, Spirit of 
Christ, and Christ. He inspired the writers of the 
Bible. He said to the Church at Antioch, “Separate 
me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto J have 
ealled them.” He forbade Paul to preach the gospel in 
Asia, and suffered him not to go into Bithynia. He de- 
termined for, and with the first council at Jerusalem, 
what restrictions should be imposed on the Gentile con- 
verts. He is associated with the Father and the Son in 
the final commission to the disciples, “Go ye, therefore, 
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ;” and 
the attributes of Deity, eternal existence, omniscience, 
omnipotence, omnipresence, creative power, are all 
ascribed to Him. 

And here I will venture to ask one or two questions. 
(1.) Is not the practice of designating the Holy Ghost 
by the impersonal pronoun 7t, and praying for its influ- 
ence and zs work in our hearts, calculated to detract 
somewhat from that worshipful reverence which is due 
to His dignity, personality and deity? (2.) Is it not 
better to apply to this divine Being, some one of the 
appellations used in Scripture, such as Holy Ghost, 


WIIO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT? 3 


Holy Spirit, Comforter, or Spirit of Christ, than to 
employ instead the name of one of His attributes or 
workings, as “the light,” “the truth,” “the seed,” or 
the “inward voice?” It would certainly seem to me 
less ambiguous, and more in accordance with the form 
of sound words, not to designate the Holy Ghost by any 
term which in the Bible is applied only to Christ or to 
God. The Spirit is truth, but Christ is the truth—the 
Spirit quickens the dead soul into life, but Christ is the 
life—the Spirit points the way, but Christ is the way— 
the Spirit makes manifest, and ‘whatsoever doth make 
manifest is light,” but God is light—and Christ is the 
light of the world—the Spirit testifies of the “seed of the 
woman” which shall bruise the serpent’s head, and that 
“incorruptible seed” is Christ Himself, 

The mystery of the Godhead will ever be incompre- 
hensible to the finite mind. In approaching that “holy 


ground,” we need to tread reverently and with uncov- 
ered feet. No fact is more clearly set forth in the Holy 
Scriptures than that God is one, and yet He has conde- 
seended to reveal Himself in the threefold character of 
Tfather, Son, and Holy Ghost. And, as in the wondrous 
plan of salvation, the Son performs certain definite offices 
distinct from those of the Father, so the Holy Spirit also 
accomplishes a work peculiarly His own. It is to a con- 
sideration of the offices of the Spirit, that the following 
pages will be principally devoted. 


CHAPTER II. 


BORN OF THE SPIRIT. 


| eae anaes human being comes into the world with 
: innate tendencies to sin: and every responsible 
human being has so far yielded to these tendencies, as to 
become an actual transgressor. Our first parents have 
sinned, and all their descendants have sinned; the man 
Christ Jesus—the second Adam, and the seed of the 
woman—being the only exception. We are born into 
this world possessed of physical life, and intellectual 
life; but in order to obtain spiritual life, we must 
be quickened by the Holy Spirit Himself, and born 
aga. 

The Saviour, in His memorable conversation with 
Nicodemus, insists upon the new birth as an indis- 
pensable thing. Whatever else may be done without, 
the new birth may not be done without. Whatever else 
may be desirable, the new birth is positively essential. 
Just as certainly as we get into this world by birth, we 
get into the kingdom of God by birth also. We do not 
get into that kingdom by growth, nor by culture, nor by 
money, nor by penances, nor by works of righteousness, 
nor by ritualistic ordinances, nor by anti-ritualistic ob- 
servances, nor by improving our own virtues, nor by 
leaving off certain bad habits, nor by self-inflicted crosses 
or mortifications, nor by anything whatever which we of 
ourselves can be, or do, or suffer, or merit, but simply 


and only by the new birth. 
4 


BORN OF THE SPIRIT. 5 


And, moreover, the spiritual birth, like the natural 
birth, is a definite process. There is a time when it 
takes place. The birth pangs may be slighter or more 
severe—shorter or more protracted—but as for every 
person upon earth there was a moment when the first 
breath was drawn and life began, so for every child of 
God there was a time when in a spiritual sense he 
passed from death unto life. Every Christian has his 
spiritual as well as his natural birthday. In some in- 
stances, but by no means in all, the conversion is mani- 
fest to the consciousness of the individual at the time 
when it occurs, and distinctly remembered ever after- 
ward. “ Where were you born?” said a church prelate 
to Summerfield. “In Liverpool and Dublin,” was the 
reply. “Why,” said he, “were you born in two places?” 
And the answer again was, “Art thou a master of Israel 
and knowest not these things ?” 

But whether distinctly recognized and definitely re- 
membered or not, regeneration is to every one who ex- 
periences it, a crisis—not less marked than that which 
happens to the child, when it passes from the darkness, 
and the confinement, and the unconsciousness of its 
ante-natal existence, into the light, and the life, and the 
freedom, and the enjoyment of the wide, wide world. 
You see a living man—you know that he had a birth- 
day, even if neither himself nor any one else can tell 
when it was. So, many a Christian may not be able ac- 
curately to define the time when he experienced the new 
birth, but both he and others know, or ought to know, 
that he has experienced it, because he feels within him- 
self the witness of the Spirit, and exhibits to others that 
Christian love which is recognized in Scripture as an 


6 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


unmistakable sign of spiritual life. It is not so im- 
portant to be aware of the time, as of the fact of one’s 
conversion. It is of far less moment to inquire, When 
was I born again? or, When did I begin to live? 
than to inquire, Have I been born again? and, Am I 
living? 

And why should a sudden conversion be deemed 
strange or incredible? are not analogous changes con- 
stantly occurring in human affairs? A man ceases to 
act with one political party, and begins to act with an- 
other; he is converted politically. A citizen removes 
from cone country to another—becomes the subject of a 
different sovereign, and is converted as to his allegiance. 
A little time is sufficient for such a change. And may 
it not be possible for a subject of the prince of the power 
of the air to change his allegiance, and become a subject 
of the King of kings, without being months er years, or 
a lifetime, in making up his mind and deciding for 
Christ? A drunkard in some moment of sober thought, 
resolves to abandon his cups, and if he keeps that reso- 
lution, he is converted from intemperance. Every day, 
decisions are made in a moment which influence a life- 
time. 

Nor are families and communities exempt from these 
sudden changes. <A rich man by a single unsuccessful 
speculation loses his property—what a shadow falls upon 
his home! A poor man receives an unexpected legacy 
—what joy is brought into his household! You visit 
the residence of a friend to-day—it is gladdened by the 
prattle of children. You go again in a week—an epi- 
demic fever has hushed those young voices forever. The 
stricken parents no longer have the same interest, or the 


BORN OF THE SPIRIT. 7 


same objects in life as before.- All is changed—it is a 
converted home— 


“We mourn for thee, when blind, black night 
The chamber fills ; 
We pine for thee, when morn’s first light 
Reddens the hills. 
The sun, the moon, the stars, the sea, 
All—to the wall-flower and green pea— 
Ts changed—we saw the world through thee, 
Casa Wappy.” 


And when we consider the transcendent importance of 
religious matters, as compared with secular, would it not 
be reasonable to expect that sudden changes should occur 
in the former as well as the latter? and so, in point of 
fact, we find it. A young Pharisee, full of zeal for the 
extermination of heresy—breathing out threatenings and 
slaughter against the followers of the despised Nazarene 
- —is smitten down at noonday—told whom he is perse- 
cuting—led into Damascus—visited by Ananias—di- 
rected what to do—receives the truth—immediately con- 
fers not with flesh and blood—and straightway preaches 
Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. 

And cases not wholly dissimilar occur in our own day. 
The following incident in point was related in my hear- 
ing. <A series of meetings was held at a village in one 
of the Western States of America. When they began, a 
citizen of the place was heard openly and profanely 
abusing the men, the meetings, and the religion. Three 
days afterward he was himself proclaiming at the corners 
of the streets that Christ hath power on earth to forgive 
sins, and seeking to build up the faith which before he 
reviled, 


8 ‘THB OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


Again: a hymn was given out in a public service, 
with the request that none would sing it excepting those 
who were Christians. An unconverted man was indig- 
nantly saying within himself that he would sing it 
though he were not a Christian. But the dishonesty of 
such a proceeding struck him, and he sat down a con- 
victed man. As the singing went on, he reflected, 
“Why may I not believe on Jesus now?” And with 
the thought came the resolve: “I will lay my sins on 
Jesus.” In that thought was involved both repentance 
and faith: and he rose to sing the remaining verses, a 
converted man. 


HOW IS REGENERATION EFFECTED? 

I answer, By the direct energy of the Holy Ghost. 
“xcept a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he 
cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.” This may 
mean born of the Spirit under the similitude of water— 
“the washing of regeneration,” but more probably it re- 
fers to the water spoken of by the Saviour to the woman 
of Samaria—which would be in the receiver a well of 
water springing up into everlasting life;—or again, 
“the water of life,’ of whose fountain all are invited to 
come and drink freely—and which signifies, as I appre- 
hend, gospel truth—salvation by faith in a crucified and 
risen Lord. To have this truth of the gospel applied to 
the heart by the Holy Spirit, and received through faith, 
is what it means, to be born of water and of the Spirit. 

Let us recur again to the fact that we belong to a 
fallen and sinful race: “ All have sinned and come short 
of the glory of God.” “Children of wrath,” “children 
of disobedience”—“ dead in trespasses and sins”—such 
are we when the Holy Spirit takes us in hand, 


BORN OF THE SPIRIT. 9 


And His first work in the heart of the sinner is that 
of Conviction. He awakens him to a sense of his sinful- 
ness, and of his danger, and of his need. He convinces 
him of his undone condition without a Saviour—He 
reminds him that all his lifetime he has been slighting 
the claims of God and living in rebellion against Him— 
He works within him not peace, but condemnation—not 
repose, but anxiety—not rest, but unrest. Truly and 
beautifully has Augustine said, “Thou hast made us 
for Thyself, and our souls are restless till they rest in 
Thee.” 

But the sinner needs to be convinced not only of his 
own lost condition, but also of God’s forgiving love. If 
he must learn the plague of his own heart, and his own 
deadly sickness, let him learn also of the healing balm 
and the great Physician. Everywhere in the Holy 
Scriptures are revealed two things. (1.) Man’s utter 
ruin, and (2.) God’s sufficient remedy. To bring these 
truths home to the apprehension of the unsayed—to 
produce in their minds a conviction of their reality, and 
of their infinite importance to themselves personally — 
that is the work of the Holy Spirit. But even in this 
work of conviction, the Holy Spirit employs a great 
variety of methods, means and instrumentalities. 

First among these, and pre-eminently blessed by Him 
in convicting sinners, is the Holy Bible. God will 
honor His own book, and that book is profitable for re- 
proof. Many a man has seen his own portrait when he 
has read, “ All the imaginations of the thoughts of his 
heart are only evil continually ””—or, “The heart of man 
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked ”— 
or, “The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot 


10 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt”—or, “ There 
is no peace saith my God to the wicked”—or, “ From 
the head to the foot there is no soundness”—or, “ ‘The 
works of the flesh are these” (a long and dreadful list)— 
or, “ All we like sheep have gone astray ””—or, “ Having 
no hope, and without God in the world.” 

Another instrumentality largely employed by the Holy 
Spirit, in convineing lost men of their true condition, and 
their need of a Saviour, is the ministry of the Gospel. 
“Tt pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save 
them that believe.” All true gospel ministry is under 
jhe power and the anointing of the Holy Ghost, and it is 
He that makes it effectual for the awakening of sinners. 
Consisting principally of an exposition and application 
of truths which are revealed in Scripture, the Holy 
Spirit imparts to it “that indescribable characteristic 
which we call wnetion,” and gives it ofttimes wondrous 
power in convicting the unregenerate. 

Thus it was on the day of Pentecost, when Peter’s 
hearers were “ pricked in their heart”—thus it was when 
men and women shrieked with agony of soul, as they 
listened to John Knox uttering forth the threatenings of 
the law—thus it was when scores of persons fell from 
their seats, as though struck down by a sword, under the 
searching ministry of President Finney; and similar 
power attended the preaching of George Fox, of Edward 
Burrough, of John Wesley, and others, not a few, of the 
anointed ambassadors of Christ. 

But other and similar instrumentalities may also be 
employed by the Spirit to accomplish His blessed pur- 
poses. A text of Scripture printed on a card, or uttered 
by the humblest Christian, or eyen by one who is not a 


BORN OF THE SPIRIT. ahi 


Christian at all—a simple question, Are you converted ? 
Are you saved? Are youa child of God ?—the truths of 
the Gospel in a tract or periodical—religious instruction 
in a Scripture School or Bible Class—the singing of a 
hymn—any means whatever by which God’s truth is 
brought in contact with the sinner’s heart may be used 
by Him with convicting and converting power. 

Nor must I fail to mention that the Holy Spirit can 
work, and does work, effectually for the conviction of 
sinners, without any outward instrumentality whatever. 
He operates directly upon the hearts of the unsaved, 
showing them their wretchedness and their sin, and 
pointing them to the Saviour. Which of my readers 
has not experienced many and many a time the visitation 
of the Holy Spirit? He has come to you, it may be, in 
the stillness and darkness of the night, or in some lonely 
hour and some retired spot by day, or even in the 
crowded street, or the gathered assembly. He has re- 
proved you for sin. He has shown you the corruption 
of your heart. He has convinced you of your need. He 
has invited you to come to the Lamb of God and be 
saved. He has pleaded earnestly with you, “ My son, 
my daughter, give me thine heart.” Has He already 
been long knocking at the door of your heart? Has 
He waited till His head is filled with the dew, and His 
locks with the drops of the night? Oh! delay not to 
arise and let Himin, He will not force an entrance. 
The door of the heart opens inwards, and is subject. to 
your own control. He may be very patient and long- 
suffering with you—He may tarry long, and go away 
and come again, but He will not save you without your 
own consent. He invites and entreats, but you must 


12 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


decide. He recognizes your moral agency and your 
power of choice. Your will must be put on His side. 
He will not take possession of your heart till you are 
willing to receive Him. Se willing now. 

A young Frenchman—brought up a Roman Catholic, 
but, at the time I speak of, an infidel—whilst walking 
alone on the banks of the Hudson, not thinking at all 
of serious things, was suddenly arrested by the words, 
“Eternity, Eternity, Eternity!” sounding through the 
very recesses of his soul. Immediately he was convinced 
that whether there was a heaven or not, there was cer- 
tainly a hell, for he seemed to feel it burning in his 
own bosom. He found rest by accepting in living 
faith the offers of salvation through a crucified and 
risen Saviour, Such was the conversion of Stephen 
Grellet. 

“The wind bloweth where it listeth,” and the Holy 
Spirit knows how to adapt His operations to the tem- 
perament, the dispositions, and the circumstances of 
every individual, and by what agencies each one may be 
successfully wrought upon and won to Christ. For the 
variety of character and condition among the unsaved is 
very great. ‘There are some—alas! many, so deeply 
sunken in sin—so abandoned in their wickedness—so 
low in vice, and poverty, and degradation—that they de 
not need to be told of their wretchedness, but, rather, 
how to escape from it. They need to be convinced, not 
that they are miserable sinners—they know that all too 
well—but that there is hope for them, that the Gospel is 
really good news—glad tidings of great joy to all who 
will hear and receive it, that there is indeed, even for 
them, “a Saviour which is Christ the Lord.” The 


BORN OF THE SPIRIT. 13 


proper thing for them is not so much the message of 
their own ruin, as the message of God’s love. 

It is said, that at the time of the great fire in Chicago, 
many persons whose families had thus suddenly become 
homeless and destitute, walked about in a kind of sullen 
despair—almost stupefied by the calamity that had be- 
fallen them—not softened, but hardened and angered by 
the hopelessness of their circumstances; but when the 
news came flashing over the wires that the heart of the 
world was throbbing in sympathy with them, and that 
help was coming from every quarter: then the fountain 


of love and tenderness in their own souls was reached, 
and strong men wept like children, Despair hardens the 
heart ;—love melts it. It is, I believe, generally, if not 
universally true, that those who, in the providence of 
God, are called and qualified to labor amongst the in- 
temperate, the abandoned, and the vicious, find it their 
proper place, under the leadings of the Holy Spirit, to go 
to them with glad tidings; to present before them the 
love of Christ; to convince them of His tender compas- 
sion toward our lost race, and to employ the language of 
invitation rather than of reproof. 

The case is very different when we come to deal with . 
respectable sinners—moral, upright, law-abiding in their 
outward conduct; some, pharisaical professors, who are 
not like other men; some, traditional Christians, mem- 
bers of a worthy and influential religious organization ; 
some, “measuring themselves by themselves, and com- 
paring themselves among themselves,” and deciding that 
they are, at least, as good as their neighbors; some, 
whole and having no need of a physician; some, trust- 
ing, partially at least, in a rigid adherence to forms and 


14 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


observances. or such as these the important thing is, 
that they should be convinced of their own “ exceeding 
need ;” that whatever may be their outward conduct, and 
the adyantages of their position, “there is no difference : 
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Fe 
that they are leaning upon a broken reed; that their 
self-righteousness is “filthy rags;” that they must be 
stripped of every false covering, and every refuge of lies ; 
that they are hopeless, helpless, bankrupt sinners, wholly 
dependent upon the mercy of God in Christ Jesus; and 
that they must cast themselves as humble, unworthy 
supplicants at His feet, pleading only His infinite merit 
for their pardon and acceptance. 

Whether the work of conviction shall be short or long, 
gradual or sudden, depends largely upon the amount of 
resistance that is made to it. If the voice of the Spirit 
is unheeded; if His reproofs are slighted; if His visi- 
tations are repelled, or if He is told again and again to 
wait for “a convenient season ;” then His convictions 
may be long-continued, and oft-repeated, and may in- 
volve much suffering and sorrow. Hence, some persons 
tell us that their conversion was gradual, because they 
struggled weeks, or months, or weary years against the 
Holy Spirit, before the point was reached of submission 
to God, and trust in Jesus. When that point is reached, 
however, conversion follows at once. There may be a 
gradual work of development and preparation before 
birth ; and a gradual process of growth after birth ; but 
the birth itself, whether natural or spiritual, is a sudden 
change which brings the individual into a new world, and 
imparts to him a new life. Conviction may be gradual 
and protracted. Conversion is definite and immediate. 


BORN OF THE SPIRIT. 15 


And let no one imagine that long, severe str ugelings 
and conflicts are ARENE essential to a sound conversion. 
It is not our remorse, nor our suffering; nor the length 
of time we are > under conviction, nor the amount of 


ircnyrdan welmniogy 


feat “Th the ereat plan of eon man receives ae 
giving, , and conquers by yielding; every victory is by 
Scie (It was not Jacob wrestling, but Jacob ceas- 
ing to wrestle—Jacob humbled, subdued, helpless, halting, 
trusting, asking—that apeatied the blessing from God.) 

Conviction, if yielded to, produces “ seals sorrow ”— 
sorrow for sin as such; not because it has injured us in 
health, reputation, or estate, but primarily and chiefly, 
because it has offended our gracious Heavenly Father ; 
“and godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation 
not to be repented of,’ 

Repentance is not penance; nor remorse—which cty- 
mologically, is biting again, and belongs to despair—not 
agony of mind; not conviction; not “godly sorrow ;” 
but that change of mind, and purpose and will, which 
results from godly sorrow. It is not simply the forsaking 
of one’s sins; because that may be done from various 
motives of self-interest; whereas, repentance is in the 
heart, and has respect to our obligations to God. Never- 
theless, beginning in the heart, it works out also into the 
life, and produces “fruits meet for repentance.” Fol- 
lowing conviction, it is the afterthought—the new resolve ; 
the choosing to be the Lord’s; the decision in favor of 
Christ ; and true repentance does inwolve the abandoning 
of all known sin. 

Whilst it is the goodness of God, or, in other words, 


16 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


the influence of the Holy Spirit, that leads men to re- 
pentance, nevertheless, all men are commanded to repent. 
“Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” 
was the primary message not only of John the Baptist, 
but of the Saviour Himself: and the same injunction 1s 
repeated, in one form or another, in many places, both 
in the Old and New Testaments. An express command 
of God implies the power to obey, and hence, repentance 
must be, in an important sense, an act of the will. God 
desires our co-partnership in the work of salvation, to 
the extent that we shall put our wills on His side, sub- 
mit to Him, and consent to be saved. Without His 
grace, doubtless, we shall not be able to repent ; but His 
grace will not be withheld if we are willing to repent. 
He commands us to repent, and requires us to repent; 
and He will not do our repenting for us. Let no one, 
therefore, who is convinced of his need of a Saviour, be 
waiting for deeper conviction, or more sensible manifes- 
tations of his undone condition, but let him, at once, by 
a voluntary act, put himseif into a state of submission to 
God; yielding his heart, including his will, into His 
hands. And whoever does this, repents. 

But, in order that the sinner may be born again, he 
must experience not only repentance toward God, but 
also faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ; and every 
Gospel blessing which the Lord promises to give us, is 
to be received only with the hand of faith. 

‘ Faith signifies nothing more nor less than believing 
God’s truth. It is the substance of things hoped for ; 
because it makes them real. It is the evidence of things 
not seen; because it convinces the mind of their existence 
and importance. It is the confidence which the human 


BORN OF THE SPIRIT. 17 


soul reposes in its Creator. It is taking God at His 
word, It is the acceptance of the glad tidings. It is 
trust in the Lord. It is rest in Jesus. 

All men believe something, and therefore, all men 
have faith. But it cannot be said, with truth, that all 
men believe God; nor, that all men have religious faith, 
or saving faith. 

It is not sufficient to believe, historically, what is writ- 

ten about the Lord Jesus Christ; nor to believe, in a 
general way, that He was the Son of God, and that He 
came into the world to save sinners. It is needful for 
each individual to believe in Him asa personal Saviour, 
and to grasp Him with that appropriating faith which 
uses the first person singular, and the possessive pro- 
noun, This God is my God. This Saviour is my Sa- 
viour. “ My beloved is mine, and I am His.” 
C¥aith is either the power of believing, or the act of be- 
hevmg. In the former sense it is given to all.) {In the 
latter i is exercised with the consent and choice of the 
human will) God presents us with His truth, and gives 
us the capacity to believe it; just as He gives us food, 
and the capacity to eat it. The act of believing, like the 
act of cating, is our own. Surrounded by plenty, men 
can starve their bodies by neglecting or refusing to 
eat. Surrounded by the saving truth of the Gospel, 
they can starve their souls by neglecting or refusing to 
believe. 

A ship, hoisting signals of distress, was spoken by 
another vessel and asked what was wanted, Feebly and 
beseechingly came the answer from famishing throats— 
“Water! water!” “Let down your buckets and dip it 
up,” was the reply. “You are in the mouth of the 


18 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


Amazon.” Fresh water all around them, and they per- 
ishing with thirst! And, with the water of life flowing 
freely for their refreshment, m ultitudes of souls are doing 
the same thing. 

The proper business of a truly convicted soul while he 
is praying for repentance, is to repent ; and, while he is 
praying for faith, is to believe. 

“Faith,” says Dr. Upham, “ considered as an element 
of the Divine mind, is a nature and not an acquisition. - 
In man, also, faith is a nature; but in God, it is nature 
eternal—in man it is nature given. God, without faith 
in Himself, could not be God; and man, without faith 
in God as his Father, could not be the child of God. 
When man, therefore, was originally created, he was 
created with faith in God. If man was originally created 
in faith, he could not have fallen from his original state, 
except by ceasing to have faith; in other words, by 
unbelief. And he cannot be restored to the state from 
which he fell, except by the restoration of faith. Pro- 
vision for this restoration is made in Jesus Christ; and 
this restoration is actually realized in the case of all those, 
who, in ceasing to have faith in themselves, have opened 
the door of their hearts for the faith which is in God.” 

Our Saviour has told us that all who would get into 
the Kingdom of Heaven, must enter it “as a little child.” 
Now the child lives in the constant and easy exercise of 
faith. He readily believes what is told him about nat- 
ural things. With the same readiness also, if rightly 
instructed, he believes what is told him about spiritual 
things. He is wholly dependent upon others for the 
supply of his daily needs; but he has faith in his pa- 
rents and care-takers—he trusts them; he is not careful; 


BORN OF THE SPIRIT. 19 


he takes no anxious thought; he expects them to pro- 
vide for his wants, and he is not disappointed. Accord- 
ing to his faith it is unto him. If a certain good thing 
is promised him, he does not think of doubting that he 
shall receive it, but begins at once to enjoy it by faith. 
If certain things are required of him, or certain restraints 
imposed upon him, even though he may not be able to 
understand their reason, yet he quickly learns to obey ; 
because he is certain that his father knows what is right 
and proper much better than himself. 

And every one—man or child, old or young, male or 
female, is to receive the Kingdom of Heaven in a similar 
spirit of unquestioning faith, and implicit obedience. 
There must be faith in God’s promises; obedience to 
His commands—which commands, at this stage are, 
repent and believe—and submission to Him, even in 
things we cannot understand; because our Father 
knows. 

And just because of this easy faith, it is especially in- 
cumbent on Christians to use all proper endeavors to 
secure the conversion of their own children, and of 
children generally. Still, as of old, the language of 
Christ is, “Suffer little children to come unto me, and 
forbid them not.” Of all the Christians in the world 
to-day, there can be little doubt that a large majority 
were converted in childhood and youth. The Holy 
Spirit begins His work of conviction upon the heart ata 
very early period of life. 

Ifa child, even when very young, comes to his parent 
grieved and distressed, because he has done wrong, the 
goodness of God is leading him to repentance. Embrace 
the opportunity thus presented by Providence for in- 


20 THE OFFICES OF THI HOLY SPIRIT. 


structing him in the plan of salvation, and for bringing 
him to Christ. Do not give him any false comfort on 
the one hand, nor unduly discourage him on the other. 
Do not divert his attention from the subject too hastily, 
nor persuade him that he is not very bad after all. Tell 
him that he has indeed a naughty heart, because Satan 
has had possession of it, and by means of it has led him 
into sin. But tell him also that Jesus died, that he 
might be forgiven and become God’s child. Instruct 
him how to pray in the name of that Saviour, for pardon 
and a new heart, and then, to belicve he receives what he 
prays for. In this simple way, even a child, being justi- 
fied by faith, will have peace with God through the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

And not the child only, but every one that is seeking 
salvation, should be instructed to ask, that he may receive. 
Whilst naturally and properly desiring the prayers of 
others on his behalf, he is not to rely wholly upon them, 
but pray for himself “ Whosoever shall call upon the 
name of the Lord shall be saved.” Do not be satisfied 
with exercising good desires in your hearts, but turn 
those good desires into words, and what you thus desire, 
pray for. The penitent sinner who humbles himself before 
God, assumes the attitude of prayer, and asks, vocally, for 
ITis mercy, seldom fails speedily to find pardon and ac- 
ceptance at [His hands. 

It is quite true, indeed, that neither praying—whether 
silent or vocal—nor anything else that man can do, will 
be of any avail in the work of regeneration, without the 
aid of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, however, 
works by and with the concurrence of the intellectual 
and moral faculties of man, He does not supersede 


BORN OF THE SPIRIT. 21 


those faculties, nor act independently of them. The in- 
tellect, the sensibilities, the conscience and the will are 
all operated upon and influenced by Him. Man is not 
an automaton, nor a machine, manipulated in such a way 
by the Holy Spine that he must be saved or lost in 
spite of himself. He is, on the contrary, a moral a gent, 
possessing and exercising the power of choice. The 
Holy Scriptures eon eMak y persuade him to choose arig gM, 
but they clearly recognize his power of choosing wrong 
and the Holy Spirit, feiss gave forth the Seripiines te 
precisely the same thing. 

Tt is He that causes the “ godly sorrow,” “that work- 
eth repentance unto salvation not to be repented of.” 
It is He that produces in the soul a hungering and 
thirsting after righteousness ; and He does so in order 
that it may be filled. It is He that begets those longing 
desires after salvation, which can be satisfied only in 
Christ. It is He that inspires the prayer for mercy and 
acceptance ; and a prayer thus inspired will most. cer- 
tainly be answered. It is He that enables the repenting, 
praying sinner to exercise saving faith in Christ; and 
“no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy 
Ghost.” Man’s part in the work of regeneration is to 
repent, to ask, to believe. God does the rest. 

But “ fin cometh by hearing, and hearing by the 
Word of God.” [Whenever the word of God, the gospel 
of life and salvation, is heard by the sinner—whether 
through the aghananentelties of the Bible, a sermon, a 
hymn, a tract, or in any other way—that is a sufficient 
call to accept and obey it; and the Holy Spirit will not 
be wanting on His part, both to persuade and to enable 
him so to do.) sufficient reason to repent is, that God 


22 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


commands it. A sufficient reason to ask is, that you 
realize your need. A sufficient reason to believe is, that 
Christ is the Truth ; and the repenting, asking, believing, 
should be done at once. , /If I may not invite a sinner to 
come to Christ now, it must be because Christ 1s not 
willing to receive him now; which is only saying that 
He wishes him to continue longer in his sins: a conclu- 
sion which the boldest advocate of delay and preparation 
would scarcely dare to adopt.“ Behold, now is the ac- 
cepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” 

If this book should be so fortunate as to be perused 
by any in the younger walks of life, I would here pause 
a moment to entreat all these to give heed to the,admo- 
nition of the Preacher—* demember now thy Oreator in 
the days of “thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor 
the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say I have no 
pleasure in them ;” no pleasure in the follies, nor the 
gaieties, nor the sins of this world—whcere, perhaps, you 
have hitherto been seeking all your pleasure. Oh! if 
only you can be persuaded now to heed the loving voice 
of your Saviour, who, through the Spirit within and the 
Gospel without, is inviting you to arise and come away 
—away from sin, and away to Him—how much bitter 
anguish, and sorrow, and remorse will be spared you in 
the future! Whilst it is comparatively easy to believe, 
whilst it is comparatively easy to obey, before both heart 
and life have become thoroughly steeped in sin, before 
evil tendencies have become strengthened by constant 
indulgence, and evil habits fixed by constant repetition, 
before Satan has so completely enveloped you in his toils 
that you shall almost despair of escape, “ Whilst the evil 
days come not,” oh, “Remember now thy Creator !” 


BORN OF THE SPIRIT. 23 


God’s purposes concerning you are purposes of love; 
His plans are plans of love. His means are means of 
love. He has His plan, also, for every man, yes, and 
for every child ;—a plan which, if carried out, will se- 
cure unmixed blessing to the recipient, and glory, as well 
as pleasure to Himself. What He wants to give you is 
infinitely better than anything you can seek for your- 
selves. If only the dear children and young people 
would let Him have His own way with them; if only 
they would not frustrate His grace, nor mar His work, 
nor thwart His plans, nor resist His will; what glori- 
ously blessed results would He bring out in their expe- 
rience. Into what delightfully green pastures would He 
guide them, beside what blessedly still waters would He 
lead them. Not but that His dealings would be very 
different in different cases. He would make some, it 
may be, like vessels of gold and of silver; and some like 
vessels of wood and of stone; but all should be vessels 
unto honor—sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use. 

Men seek for pleasure, or for wealth, or for fame, or 
for position in the world. For these things they strive, 
for these they struggle, for these they burn many a time 
the midnight oil; and how very few, after all their 
efforts, ever obtain that one of these supposed good things 
which they have desired so earnestly, and striven for so 
long. And out of the comparatively small number who 
do attain what the world calls success in life, how much 
fewer still are those who are satisfied therewith. Do 
they not find by experience which is often bitter and sad, 
that— 


“Things of earth were never yet designed 
To quench the vast and deathless thirst of an immortal mind !” 


24 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


and that the very objects which they fondly imagined 


would make them happy, are only—like the apples of 


Sodom—fair and beautiful to the view, but crumbling to 
ashes within the grasp ! 

Multitudes of disappointed men are in the world to- 
day ; some disappointed because they have not attained 
what they desired, and some because. after they have at- 
tained it, they are still unsatisfied. 


“ Bubbles we earn with our whole soul’s tasking ; 
ee) | 
’Tis only God that is given away— 
’Tis only Heaven may be had for the asking.” 


“ONE THING IS NEEDFUL.” 


“God seeth not as man seeth.” Many a life which 
the world calls a success, will be found a stupendous 
failure when weighed in the balance of the sanctuary. 
Many a life which men count a failure, God will count 
a grand success. 

A wealthy merchant was suddenly stricken with a 
fatal malady. Casting his dying eyes around the luxu- 
riously-furnished apartment in which he lay, and then 
fixing them upon his only daughter—for whose sake, it 
may be, he had been eager in his pursuit of gain—he 
simply asked, “ Nelly, have not.we made a mistake after 
all?” What a volume of instruction do these words 
convey ; and how lamentable that in any case a mistake, 
whose disastrous effects may extend to eternity, should 
be discovered only when it is too late to rectify it! 

Let us make a definite hypothesis. Suppose that 


God, by His Holy Spirit, calls you to surrender to Him - 


and become a Christian at the age of fifteen years. You 
plead for delay. You wish a little more time for your 


BORN OF THE SPIRIT. 25 


own pleasures, and your own plans, you are young, you 
want to enjoy this world awhile, you must finish your 
education, you must settle in life, you must give yourself 
to business. A hundred excuses your own ingenuity 
and Satan’s, can quickly invent, and you say to the 
Spirit—“ Go thy way for this time.” Suppose, however, 
that you stipulate that, at thirty years of age you will 
surrender your heart to the Lord. If sucha thing were 
possible, suppose that He accepts your presumptuous 
proposition ; leaves you to your own plannings, and 
willings, and pleasures, for fifteen years; returns to you, 
and you keep your vow—close in with His offers and 
become His child. Even then, what have you done? 
You have simply deprived yourself of Jifteen years of un- 
mixed blessing. The Lord in His infinite goodness may, 
and will, make of you the best thing that can be made 
now; but not the best thing that could have been made 
if you had surrendered then. There is a loss in every 
day’s delay to accept the blessed Spirit’s call; and not 
even by double diligence can we, in any just sense of the 
term, redeem lost time. 

But unhappily, in point of fact the majority of man- 
kind, even in gospel lands, pass through their childhood 
and youth without ever definitely exercising faith in 
Christ, and without being converted. And we often 
meet with those, in middle or advanced life, who, al- 
though greatly concerned about their souls, yet tell us 
they cannot believe. Ard yet, from their childhood they 
have had faith in the sense of the power to believe; but 
they have never put that latent power into actual use by 
definitely believing God’s truth for themselves. Their 
faith is weakened and paralyzed by long disuse; just as 


26 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


sight would be weakened and paralyzed if the eyes were 
bandaged from infancy to manhood, and never employed 
im seeing anything. 

Under these circumstances, the will must be brought 
to bear in aid of the debilitated faith. The convicted 
and prayerful penitent, must will to believe; he must 
choose to believe; he must determine to believe. Do not 
let it be objected that belief is not a matter of volition, 
but a matter of evidence. It is not from any lack of 
evidence, that such an one as we have supposed does not 
believe that Christ is able and willing to save him now, 
and that He does save him now. It is because Satan has 
got hold of his believing power and rendered it partially 
inert. 

And now, let the will be put on the believing side, 
and let the individual resolve to obey God’s positive 
command—believe, as he would obey any other command. 
Let him grasp the promises of Christ and appropriate 
them to himself. “ Him that cometh unto me I will in 
no wise cast out.”—That means me, now. “ Be of good 
cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.”—That means me, now. 
“ Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”—That means me, 
now. ‘ Whosoever will, let him take of the water of 
life freely.” —That means me, now. With a fixed deter- 
mination, let him regard unbelief as a grievous sin and 
an infinite dishonor to God, and, while he prays for help 
from above, let him also strive to believe. The Holy 
Spirit will be present to his necessity ; and as he en- 
treats, like one of old—“ Lord, I believe, help Thou 
mine unbelief,” he will receive the gracious response— 
“Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.” 

On one occasion Jesus found a man whose right hand 


BORN OF THE SPIRIT. ye 


was withered. He gaye him a positive command: 
“ Stretch forth thine hand.” The poor man might have 
answered, “TI cannot—it is the very thing I would 
gladly do, but this right hand has long ago forgotten its 
cunning; to tell me to stretch it forth is a mockery.” 
Do we not see that if he had reasoned thus he might 
have carried his withered hand to the grave? But he 
did not thus reason. The command came: “Stretch 
forth thine hand.” Immediately he made the effort, and 
with the effort came the power. The hand was stretched 
forth, and became whole as the other. Let the convicted 
and penitent sinner, whose faith has become feeble by 
want of exercise, do likewise. By a determined effort 
let him stretch forth the hand of faith, and he also shall 
be made whole. 
And now the same blessed Spirit who has thus wrought 
_ the new birth in the soul of the sinner, becomes a wit- 
ness to his adoption. “ The Spirit itself, beareth witness 
with our spirit that we are the children of God.” And, 
because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of 
His Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father.” 
“He that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness 
in himself’ And the forgiven, accepted, regenerated 
believer, can but utter from his heart the language of 
adoring praise—“ Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all 
that is within me, bless His holy name,” 


28 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


REMARKS, 
I, 

Conviction is the work of the Holy Spirit on the heart 
of the sinner, by which he is made to realize his undone 
condition and earnestly to desire reconciliation with God. 
Tn order to bring the impenitent to conviction, the Holy 
Spirit may either operate directly, or He may employ a 
great variety of instrumentalities. 


It. 


Repentance is change of mind, the after-thought, a 
firm resolve to turn away from sin and come to Christ. 
“Godly sorrow worketh repentance,” and “Godly sor- 
row” is itself the result of conviction, produced in the 
unforgiven soul by the Holy Ghost. The amount of 
mental agitation and suffering that may precede, or ac- 
company, repentance is very different in different cases. 
One is pressed down as with the weight of a mountain, 
under the sense of his guilt. Another is melted at once 
into contrition, as he gets a glimpse of God’s infinite 
love. One exclaims with Charles Marshall, “Oh, un- 
declarable fall!—Oh, endless wall of partition and 
separation!—Oh, gulf unutterable!” Another with 
the Psalmist cries, “Because Thy loving-kindness is 
better than life, my lips shall praise Thee.” One hears 
the threatenings of Sinai; another the invitations of 
Calvary. One is aroused by the terrors of impending 
judgment; another responds to the voice of love, as an 
infant awakened from slumber by its mother’s kiss. 
And let us not give heed to any heresy that would 
weaken a single motive, either of fear or of love, which 
may draw men to Christ. 


BORN OF THE SPIRIT. 29 


TET: 


Faith is the acceptance of God’s mercy and grace in 
Christ Jesus. & The grace of faith, or the power of be- 
lieving, is the gift of God.) The act of faith, or actual 
believing, is the exercise of that power. When God 
presents His truth to us it is not a matter of indifference 
whether we accept or reject it. He holds us accountable 
for the exercise of the faith which He has given us. 
“He that believeth not, is condemned already.” And to 
every contrite, anxious soul that wills to believe, the 
power so to do will be given by the Holy Ghost. 


IV. 


Prayer is asking God to fulfill His own promises and 
to give us what we need. It is turning the good desires 
which the Holy Ghost has begotten in our hearts into 
words, and addressing them to the throne of grace. 
This may be done either in vocal utterances, or by the 
whispered or silent aspirations of the soul. Whether 
prayer shall be silent or vocal in any given case may be 
left to the leadings of the Holy Spirit, but I believe the 
sinner who comes to Christ for pardon will often find it 
both necessary and effectual to call with his voice upon 
the name of the Lord. 


Ve 


“Thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee.” 
If we are in such a state of penitence and submission that 
God is willing for Christ’s sake to forgive us one sin, He 
is willing also to forgive us all sins. The broken and 
the contrite heart He will not despise. Whoever comes 


30 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


to God in penitential prayer, believing in Jesus, receives 
justification. This is pardon, forgiveness, remission, ab- 
solution. All guilt, all condemnation, and all penalty 
on account of past transgressions are removed from him 
forever. His indebtedness is cancelled. “Jesus paid 
it, all 73 

VI. 


But in justifying a sinner, God has respect to his 
moral condition. He not only removes his guilt, but 
He changes his natureas well. Conversion, or Regener- 
ation, always accompanies Justification. ‘These terms 
are used synonymously—the one indicating, in its ety- 
mology, a change of heart, or turning to Christ; the 
other, a new birth from above. Spiritual life is imparted 
to the soul by the Holy Ghost; and this life, however 
feeble it may be in its incipiency, is a life in the image 
of Christ, so that every justified soul, even if not wholly 
cleansed from the stains of its inward corruption, is yet 
partially sanctified; and whoever experienees “the 
washing of regeneration,” begins to be made holy. The 
process is completed (in most cases at a later period) by 
the “renewing of the Holy Ghost.” 


iVaL; 


The witness of the Spirit is explained by John Wesley 
as follows, viz.: 

“By the testimony of the Spirit I mean an inward 
impression on the soul, whereby the Spirit of God im- 
mediately and directly witnesses to my spirit that I am 
a child of God, that Jesus Christ hath loved me and 
given Himself for me, that all my sins are blotted out, 


BORN OF THE SPIRIT. ol 


and I, even I am reconciled to God. I do not mean 
hereby that the Spirit of God testifies this by an out- 
ward voice. No, nor always by an inward voice, 
although He may do this sometimes. Neither do I 
suppose that He always applies to the heart (although 
He often may) one or more texts of Scripture. But He 
so works upon the soul by His immediate influence, 
and by a strong though inexplicable operation, that the 
stormy wind and the troubled waves subside, and there 
is a sweet calm, the heart resting in Jesus, and the sinner 
being clearly satisfied that all his iniquities are forgiven 
and his sins covered.” 


EVEL UIs 


I do not believe that either election, reprobation, or 
the perseverance of the saints is unconditional. If we 
take the whole tenor of Bible teaching, instead of basing 
important doctrines on isolated texts, I think we shall 
find that the elect are those who hear the gospel and 
accept it; while the reprobate are they who hear and 
reject, or neglect, the great salvation. 

In point of fact, we may well suppose that very few 
who have really been born again are finally lost. If 
they backslide, the Lord follows them with His tender 
invitations to return. Backsliding is soul-sickness, but 
not soul-death. But, as among the millions of people 
who have inhabited the earth, a very few, in full pos- 
session of their faculties, and exercising their own choos- 
ing power, have committed suicide, so it is possible for 
the believer, in the exercise of his moral agency, sui- 
cidally to sunder himself from Christ. | But whe would 
wish or choose so to do? 


y THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


Co 
b 


IX. 

“Oh, how unlike the complex works of man, 
ITeayen’s easy, artless, unencumbered plan! 
No meretricious graces to beguile, 

No clustering ornaments to clog the pile; 
From ostentation, as from weakness, free, 
It stands, like the cerulean arch we see, 
Majestic in its own simplicity. 

Inscribed above the portal from afar, 
Conspicuous as the brightness of a star, 


Legible only by the light they give, 
Stand the soul-quickening words, Brenizyr AND Liv.” 


CHAPTER III, 


BAPTIZED WITH THE SPIRIT. 


HIS is Christ’s Baptism. When the son of Zacha- 

rias came preaching in the wilderness of J udea, 

his first message was, “ Repent ye, for the Kingdom of 

Heaven is at hand.” His second message was, “I in- 

deed baptize you with water; but there standeth one 

among you whom ye know not; He shall baptize you 
with the Holy Ghost.” 

Now two of the Evangelists expressly state that John 
« preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of 
sins.” ‘This remission, as none can doubt, was expe- 
rienced by faith, not in John, but in Jesus. It is plain 
that the thing typified and signified by the baptism of 
John, is precisely what I have already been describing in 
the second chapter, as the Holy Spirit’s work in produc- 
ing conversion or regeneration through “repentance 
toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

The new birth is repentance and remission—Christ’s 
baptism is consecration and holiness. The new birth is 
for the unconverted—Christ’s baptism is for Christians. 
The new birth is out of Egypt—Christ’s baptism is into 
Canaan. The new birth is deliverance from guilt— 
Christ’s baptism is deliverance from sin. The new birth 
is justification to the sinner—Christ’s baptism is entire 
sanctification to the believer. The new birth is the be- 
trothal—Christ’s baptism is the marriage. The new 


birth is the “washing of regeneration ’”’—Christ’s baptism 
3 33 


o4. THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


is “the renewing of the Holy Ghost.” The new birth 
begins what Christ’s baptism consummates—but both are 
wrought by the agency of the one Divine Spirit; and both 
are wholly independent of any outward ordinance. 

“T baptize you with water; He shall baptize you 
with the Holy Ghost.” So said John; and Christ’s 
own words to His disciples just before His ascension, 
are almost identical“ John truly baptized you with 
water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not 
many days hence.” He told them to wait for the promise 
of the Father, which they had heard of Him; and that 
promise was, that the Father would send, in Jesus’ name, 
the “Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.” 

Long before this, on the last great day of one of the 
Jewish feasts, Jesus stood and cried, “ If any man thirst, 
let him come unto me and drink.” “ He that believeth 
on me,” as the Scripture hath said, ‘“ out of his belly 
shall flow rivers of living water.” And then, that the 
Church in all subsequent ages might not be left in doubt 
as to what the Saviour meant by saying that out of the 
inmost spiritual self of those who believed in Him there 
should flow rivers of living water, the Apostle puts in a 
parenthetical explanation, which is exceedingly interest- 
ing and important, viz.: “But this spake He of the 
Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive, for 
the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was 
not yet glorified.” 

Now, no one will dispute that the Holy Spirit has 
been in the world from the beginning. When primal 
chaotic darkness invested the void and formless earth 
and rested upon the face of the deep, even then, “The 
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” He 


BAPTIZED WITH TIE SPIRIT. 35 


inspired the writers of the Old Testament, for “ holy 
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
xhost.”’ LHe came upon individuals at different periods 
and empowered them for special services, as in the case 
of Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, David. N otwithstanding 
these facts, however, it is quite certain, if the above text 
is to be interpreted according to its plain and obvious 
meaning, that the Holy Ghost was given to the Church 
after the glorification of Jesus, and in consequence of the 
glorification of Jesus, in a sense and to a degree which 
had never been experienced before. And this is the bap- 
tism with the Holy Ghost. 

The Old Testament prophecies themselves distinctly 
mention this baptism as one of the blessings to be en- 
joyed under the Gospel dispensation. “TI will pour my 
Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine off- 
spring.” “T will put my Spirit within you, and cause 
you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judg- 
ments and do them.” And the well-known prophecy of 
Joel, which was quoted by Peter on the day of Pente- 
cost, asserts that the Lord will pour out His Spirit upon 
sons, daughters, old men, young men, servants, hand- 
maidens. Under the old dispensation, therefore, the 
Holy Spirit, except that small measure of His influence 
and light which is given to all men in all ages, was im- 
parted only to certain individuals and oni special occa- 
sions, but under the Gospel it is God’s gracious purpose 
that the Spirit should be poured out universally and 
generally upon all His children, and that He should 
abide with them forever. 

In the sixth chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah, we 
find an experience so marvellous in itself, and so clearly 


36 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


foreshadowing the baptism with the Spirit, that I think 
it proper to allude to it. Isaiah prophesied in the days 
of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, 
In his first chapters he describes most vividly the sinful- 
ness of the Jewish nation and exhorts them to repent- 
ance and amendment of life. He tells them to wash 
them from their sins, to put away the evil of their doings, 
to cease to do evil, to learn to do well; and, on condition 
of their doing so, he promises them, in the name of the 
Lord, that “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be 
as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they 
shall be as wool.” His prophesying at this stage, just 
like John’s preaching and John’s baptism, is concerning 
repentance, amendment of life, and remission of sins. 

How long he had thus been a preacher of righteous- 
ness before the death of Uzziah, we do not certainly 
know. But he tells us, “in the year that king Uzziah 
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and 
lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it 
stood the seraphim ; each one had six wings; with twain 
he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, 
and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, 
and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts; the 
whole earth is full of His glory. And the posts of the 
door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house 
was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I 
am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I 
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine 
eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.” 

Now, who told the prophet that he was a man of un- 
clean lips? Had he not been powerfully preaching to 
those around him, repentance and the forgiveness of 


BAPTIZED WITH THE SPIRIT. ot 


sins? Yes, But when he caught only a glimpse of the 
infinite purity of Christ (for on this occasion, John tells 
us that Isaiah saw His glory and spake of Him), his first 
thought was about his own uncleanness, To get really 
a better view of Christ does not tend to engender pride, 
nor boastfulness, but on the contrary, it takes the self- 
righteousness, and the self-sufficiency, and the self-de- 
pendence, and the self-glorification out of a man. 

So it was with Job, when the Lord answered him out 
of the whirlwind; and the patriarch, ceasing to justify 
himself, exclaimed—“T have heard of Thee by the hear- 
ing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee; wherefore I 
abhor mycelf, and repent in dust and ashes.” So it was 
with Daniel, when a wondrous vision was vouchsafed to 
him—* There remained no strength in me, for my come- 
liness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained 
no strength.” So it was with Ezekiel, when “the ap- 
pearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord”? was 
shown to him—“And when I saw it, I fell upon my 
face.” So it was with Saul of Tarsus, when on his jour- 
ney to Damascus Jesus appeared to him in the way, and 
he fell to the earth, tremblingly inquiring —“ Who art 
Thou, Lord? What wilt Thou have me to do?” 
it was with John in Patmos, when he saw the glorified 
Redeemer—that same Jesus with whom he had been so 
familiar on earth as to lean upon His bosom ; but now 
— tell at His feet as dead.” And so it was with 
Isaiah, 

But mark what followed “Then flew one of the 
seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which 
he had taken with the tongs from off the altar ; and he 
laid it upon my mouth, and said, ‘ Lo, this hath touched 


38 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin 
purged.’” Now, no one, I apprehend, will venture to 
deny that Isaiah was already a forgiven and accepted 
child of God; and yet, this was to him a new experience. 
He had received the pardon of his past sins before; but 
now the iniquity of his nature was taken away, and his 
in-bred sin was purged. He had known justification 
before; now he obtained sanctification. He had already 
had the baptism of repentance and remission of sins ; 
but this was his baptism with fire, yes, and with the 
Holy Ghost. 

And is it too much to believe that we can trace the 
effects of this baptism everywhere upon the glowing 
pages of his prophecy? Isaiah is pre-eminently the 
evangelical prophet of the Old Testament. He describes 
she blessings of the gospel dispensation almost as forci- 
bly and accurately as if he had lived under it himself. 
How vividly, and how pathetically, does he delineate 
the vicarious sufferings of Christ. “He was wounded 
for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniqui- 
ties ; the chastiscment of our peace was upon Him, and 
with His stripes we are healed.” How beautifully does 
he set before our view, the desert blooming, and the 
wilderness rejoicing ; and the highway of holiness, over 
which the unclean shall not pass, and in which the way- 
faring men shall not err. How grand, and how lovely, 
are the visions, in which, looking down the centuries 
before him with the eye of a seer, he recognized the — 
future glory of the Church, and calls upon her to “ Arise, 
shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord 
is risen upon thee.” 

Let us now return to the Apostles. ‘They were com- 


BAPTIZED WITH THE SPIRIT. 39 


manded not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for 
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The eleven, together 
with the converts—male and female—in all, one hundred 
and twenty, assembled in an upper room, and “con- 
tinued, with one accord, in prayer and supplication.” 
From the best calculations we are able to make, they 
must have continued to hold these daily prayer mectings 
for seven, or possibly ten days, before the promise was 
fulfilled. If the vision tarried, they waited for it. 
“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they 
were all with one accord in one place; and suddenly 
there came a sound from heayen, as of a rushing, mighty 
wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 
And there appeared unto them cloyen tongues, like as of 
fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled 
with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other 
tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” 

We need not wonder that the effect was marvellous. 
The multitude of Jews, “out of every nation under 
heaven,” assembled together at the strange news, aid, 
hearing unlearned men—and shall we not say women as 
well ?—speaking the wonderful works of God in their 
different languages, could only look into each others’ 
faces and exclaim—“ What meaneth this?” Whilst 
others, mocking, said, “These men are full of new 
wine.” ‘Then Peter arose, quoted in their hearing the 
prophecy of Joel, preached unto them Jesus and the 
resurrection, assured them that what they heard and 
saw, was the baptism with the Holy Ghost—the promise 
of the Father shed forth by the Son—and exhorted them, 
with wonderful success, to accept the offers of salvation 
through a crucified and risen Lord. 


40 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


Again. When, at a subsequent period, in obedience 
to a heavenly vision, Peter went and preached the Gos 
pel to Cornelius and his household, the Holy Ghost fel\ 
on them also, and they spake with tongues and magni- 
fied God. Thus God made choice among the Apostles 
that through Peter’s instrumentality, the door of faith 
was opened to Gentiles as well as Jews; and I see no 
reason to reject the views maintained, I think, by Dean 
Alford, that (in a certain subordinate sense) the Church 
universal, composed of Jew and Gentile, was founded 
upon Peter as one of the “ foundation stones”—himself 
founded upon Jesus Christ, “the chief corner stone,” and 
haying added to himself on the day of Pentecost, three 
thousand living stones beside. There is nothing in this 
remark, if rightly interpreted, to give the slightest coun- 
tenance to the errors and assumptions of popery. The 
true rock upon which the Church is built, can be none 
other than the “ Rock of Ages.” “Other foundation 
can no man Jay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus.” 

On the day of Pentecost, Christ’s baptism was poured 
out upon the Church of the hundred and twenty. It 
was given to Christian believers, to converted persons, to 
those who had already accepted Christ in the pardon of 
sin. Some of them had been followers of Jesus almost 
from the beginning of His public ministry—a period of 
more than three years. Some, probably, had been only 
recently converted ; but all alike received the Holy Ghost. 
And it is worthy of notice also, as showing the diversi- 
ties of operations by the same Spirit, that the three thou- 
sand persons who were added to the Church on that 
remarkable day, probably, all received this baptism with 
the Spirit co-instantaneously with, or immediately after, 


BAPTIZED WITH THE SPIRIT. 4] 


their conversion. The power of the Lord is not to be 
limited in any way, and, although in most instances 
Christ’s baptism is not received until some time subse- 
quent to the new birth, yet this is not always, nor 
necessarily the case. The work may be cut short in 
righteousness, and the newly-regenerated soul may be 
baptized at once with the Holy Ghost. | 

Sometime after the martyrdom of Stephen, we are told 
that Philip, the deacon, went down to Samaria, and 
preached Christ unto them, Immediately a great re- 
vival began. ‘The people with one accord gave heed 
unto those things which Philip spake.” They accepted 
the glad tidings of salvation, they believed in J esus, they 
were baptized, both men and women. But this was not 
Christ’s baptism. For “when the Apostles which were 
at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word 
of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when 
they were come down, prayed for them, that they might 
receive the Holy Ghost.” Then we have another most 
important parenthesis, showing very distinctly that to 
be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus—that is, to 
accept Him in repentance and remission of sins—is one 
thing, and to receive the Holy Ghost in His baptizing 
power, 1s another and a very different thing. “For as 
yet,” says the evangelist, “He was fallen upon none of 
them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord 
Jesus.” “ Then laid they their hands on them, and they 
received the Holy Ghost.” 

Philip, we cannot doubt, was an anointed minister of 
Christ and a successful revivalist, but it was not given 
to him to be the means of imparting the Holy Ghost. 
Tor that impartation, the laying on of Apostolic hands, 


42 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


was, in this instance, required. But it was not always 
so. Paul himself received the Holy Ghost through the 
instrumentality of Ananias, and Apollos through that of 
Aquila and Priscilla. The power of conferring the 
Holy Ghost on believers was given, but not confined, to 
the Apostles; nor do I read anything, or know any- 
thing, about an “apostolic succession” in this or any 
other regard. 

I have mentioned Apollos, This man was instructed 
in the way of the Lord, and spake and taught diligently 
the things of the Lord, and therefore he must have been 
a converted man. He knew only the baptism of John, 
and therefore he had not received the baptism of Christ. 
But after Aquila and Priscilla had expounded to him 
the way of God more perfectly, and he had received the 
knowledge of Christ’s baptism, and, no doubt, the bap- 
tism itself also, then “he hetped them much which had 
believed through grace; for he mightily convinced the 
Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that 
Jesus was Christ.” In addition to his gifts of culture 
and eloquence, he had received power when the Holy 
Ghost came upon him. 

I presume it was twelve of the converts made by 
Apollos, when he knew only the baptism of John, whom 
Paul found at Ephesus, and to whom he addressed the 
question, “ Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye 
believed?” I shall not enter into any argument about 
the translation of this passage, since, whatever be the 
translation, it clearly shows that to believe was, in the 
mind of the Apostle, one thing, and to receive the Holy 
Ghost was another. So fully was this distinction un- 
derstood in those days, that it seems probable that some 


BAPTIZED WITH THE SPIRIT. 43 


such question as the above was very commonly asked by 
the Apostles when they met with strangers who claimed 
to be believers. After these twelve men had candidly 
confessed that they had not so much as heard whether 
there be any Holy Ghost, and Paul had explained to 
them the difference between John’s baptism and that of 
Christ, he laid his hands upon them, and they also re- 
ceived the Holy Ghost—“ spake with tongues and pro- 
phesied.” 

And if the inquiry were made in our own day whether 
of individual believers, or of the Church as a whole— 
“ Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed ?” 
would not the Church, as such, and the great majority of 
its members, have to confess, like the Ephesian converts, 
“We have not so much as heard whether there be any 
Holy Ghost,” so far as His baptizing power is concerned. 
We have not known Him to fill us; to cleanse us; to 
energize us; to abide in us. And yet, what says the 
Lord Jesus? “If ye then, being evil, know how to give 
good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your 
Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
Him?” Oh! when will the individual Christian, and 
when will the Church at large, learn the simple lesson— 
“Ask and receive ?” 

In the chapters that are to follow, it will be my en- 
deavor to show what were the essential features and 
characteristics of the Pentecostal baptism. At present I 
will merely observe that the sensible miraculous phe- 
nomena which were manifested on that occasion, did not 
constitute those essential features and characteristics. 

The principal miraculous power exercised by the dis- 
ciples, and observed by the multitude, was the ability to 


44 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


épeak in unknown tongues. Now, the gift of tongues— 
whether it means the power to speak in actual existing 
languages which the speaker had never learned, or 
whether it implies the giving forth of ecstatic utterances, 
not to be found in any language, and requiring a special 
gift of interpretation to understand it, was—like the 
word of wisdom, and the word of knowledge, and the 
power of healing, and extraordinary faith—one of the 
gifts of the Spirit, conferred by Him upon some, and with- 
held from others. 

Christ’s baptism, on the other hand, was the gift of the 
Spirit Himself, and was designed for the Church univer- 
sally, and every individual member of it in all ages. 
When Peter stood preaching on the day of Pentecost, 
with the new power of the Spirit upon him, the wonder- 
ing multitude “ were pricked in their heart,” and said 
unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles, “Men and 
brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said unto 
them, ‘ Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the 
name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.” That 
is the first step in the way of salvation, and means sim- 
ply the experience of the new birth. But he continued— 
“And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; for the 
promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that 
are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall 
call.” Here we have another and a different experience 
—that of the baptism with the Holy Ghost—and the 
positive assertion, that it is for every Christian; be- 
cause most assuredly every Christian is one whom the 
Lord our God has called. 

Let no one, therefore, suppose for a moment that the 
baptism with the Holy Ghost was a blessing granted 


BAPTIZED WITH THE SPIRIT. 45 


only to Apostles, or to others only in the Apostolic age. 
On the contrary, it is the privilege of every believer to 
the end of time. Beloved reader, say then, It is for 
me, and, by the grace of God, it shall be mine. 

The formula for a New Testament believer, whatever 
his name might be—whether Peter, or John, or Paul, 
or Barnabas, or Stephen, or Silas, was, “aman full of 
the Holy Ghost ;” and the same formula ought to cx- 
press, and does express, the true Christian now. Not 
but that there are many true Christians, who have not 
yet received the Holy Ghost since they believed ; but 
that all ought diligently to seek Him until they do re- 
ceive Him, and that only thus can they enjoy the “ ful- 
ness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ,” 

Nor has the Church, in any century of its existence, 
been without at least a few men and women who were 
“filled with the Spirit.” So it was with Tauler, and 
the Friends of God, in the middle ages so it was with 
such pious Roman Catholics as F énélon, Thomas a 
Kempis, Lady Guyon, and Catherine Adorna; so it was 
with the Reformers of the sixteenth century ; so it was 
with the Protestant Martyrs of England’and other lands; 
so it was with the Moravians; so it was with the Cove- 
nanters ; so it was with the early Friends; so it was 
with the early Methodists; so it is now with thousands 
of individual believers among the various sects of Chris- 
tendom. God docs not leave Himself without witnesses 
to His great salvation; and, even in the very darkest 
nights of apostacy, and in the fiercest storms of persecu- 
tion, He reserves to Himself seven thousand who do not 
bow the knee to Baal, nor kiss his image. These are 
men baptized with the Holy Ghost; men full of the 


46 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


Spirit; men of whom martyrs are made in the days of 
trial; and men whose light shines sweetly and attrac: 
tively in the days when the churches have rest. 

If, as I have remarked, the miraculous phenomena 
attending the baptism received by the Church on the day 
of Pentecost are not to be confounded with the baptism 
itself, we need not be surprised if such sensible manifes- 
tations are sometimes absent. 

This baptism does not come to all in the same way, 
though its effects are alike precious in all. With some 
it is a Pentecostal effusion—the rushing of a mighty 
wind; the whirlwind and the earthquake, prostrating 
everything before it, and causing its recipients to speak 
with new tongues and glorify God, whilst the multitude 
wonder or scoff. With others the blessing comes in 
moments of quiet calm; when all outward commotions 
have ceased ; when the faculties of the soul are hushed, 
and restful, and expectant; and it comes asa still, small 
voice, whispering to the inward ear, and diffusing a 
sweet and tranquil joy through the whole spiritual being. 
In either case it is the Holy Ghost, and we are to re- 
ceive Him in the way of His coming. “The wind 
bloweth where it listeth.” is 

The following quotation is from Fletcher: “ But, if 
the Lord be pleased to come softly to thy help; if He 
make an end to thy corruptions by helping thee gently to 
sink to unknown depths of meekness ; if He drown the in- 
dwelling man of sin by baptizing, by plunging him into 
an abyss of humility; do not find fault with the sim- 

plicity of His method, the plainness of His appearing, 
and the commonness of His prescriptions. Nature, like 
Naaman, is full of prejudices. She expects that Christ 


BAPTIZED WITH THE SPIRIT. 47 
will come to make her clean, with as much ado and pomp, 
and bustle, as the Syrian General looked for, when he 
was wroth and said, ‘ Behold, I thought he will surely 
come out to me, and stand and call on his God, and 
strike his hand over the place and recover the leper.’ ” 
Christ frequently goes a much plainer way to work, and 
by this means He disconcerts all our preconceived no- 
tions and schemes of deliverance. “Learn of me to be 
meek and lowly in heart, and thou shalt find rest to thy 
soul” —the sweet rest of Christian perfection, of perfect 
humility, resignation and meekness. 

In the light, and the joy, and the purity, and the 
power of the Pentecostal baptism, the disciples walked 
till the day of their death. Jt was never repeated to them. 
And yet, on one occasion afterward the place was shaken 
where they were sitting, ‘‘and they were filled with the 
Holy Ghost, and spake the word of God with boldness.” 

The power of the Spirit continuing in them constantly 
after the day of Pentecost, as a latent force, was brought 
into active exercise whenever it was required. They 
\ were specially energized for special emergencies, but the 

| Spirit was with them all the time; yes, and in them. 

/ And so we must conclude that the baptism with the 
Holy Ghost is, in each case a definite experience, realized 
once for all, and not to be expected again and again; 
but there may be many successive girdings and fillings, 
according to God’s free grace and the believer’s indi- 
vidual need, as well as the service to which he may be 
called, 


| 


48 THE OFFICES OF THE IIOLY SPIRIT, 


REMARKS. 
if 


The baptism with the Holy Ghost is the promise of 
the Father and the gift of the Son. 


II. 


This baptism is an experience distinct from, and sub- 
sequent to the new birth, but, in exceptional cases, the 
one may be imparted in immediate connection with the 
other. 


ITI. 


The Scriptural expressions—“ baptized with the Holy 
Ghost,” “the Holy Ghost fell on,” “ was poured out the 
gift of the Holy Ghost,” “ Holy Ghost came,” “ Holy 
Ghost was given,” “received the Holy Ghost,” are used 
in reference to believers, and are precisely synonymous, 


IV. 


Christ’s baptism does not always come in the same 
way, nor exhibit the same phenomena, either to the 
consciousness of the recipient, or to the observation of 
others. 

Vv. 


This baptism is not one of the gifts of the Spirit, but 
the gift of the Spirit Himself. 
By Ls 


Every converted person—whether he has been bap- 
tized with water or not—has received John’s baptism of 


BAPTIZED WITH THE SPIRIT. 49 


repentance and remission of sins; but there are many 
Christian believers, who have not yet received Christ’s 
baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Let such as 
these abide in the upper chamber—in the place of con- 
secration and prayer—till the day of their Pentecost is 
fully come. “If the vision tarry, wait for it; for it will 
surely come, it will not tarry.” 


CHAPTER IV. 


SANCTIFIED BY THE SPIRIT. 


TT NHE sound as of a rushing mighty wind, the ap- 

pearance of cloven tongues like as of fire, and the 
speaking in unknown languages, were all miraculous ac- 
companiments of the baptism received on the day of 
Pentecost; but they were not the baptism itself. ‘The 
one item of transcendent importance in the whole history 
is, that then, for the first time, the church of the hun- 
dred-and-twenty ‘were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” 
And, as a consequence of this baptism, a complete reno- 
vation and transformation were wrought in their interior, 
spiritual natures. They were entirely sanctified. Their 
hearts were made perfect in love. 

Some years after this memorable event, a council was 
called at Jerusalem, to determine whether or not the re- 
strictions and observances of the Mosaic law should be 
imposed upon the large numbers of Gentile Christians 
who had been converted by the preaching of Paul and 
Barnabas. On that occasion, Peter, in rehearsing the 
transactions in which he had had so large a share at the 
house of Cornelius, used the following language—“ And 
God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them w*tness, 
giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did uno us; 
and put no difference between us and them, purifying their 
hearts by faith.” 

It must be quite evident, from this statement, (1), that 
just what the Gentiles received when the Holy Ghost 
50 


SANCTIFIED BY THE SE ERI oO] 


fell on them at the preaching of Peter, that same thing 
the Apostles, and their fellow-believers, received on the 
day of Pentecost; and (2), that as the former received 
the purifying of their hearts by faith, so also did the 
latter. f 

But what does the expression, “ purifying their hearts,” 
mean? It means the removal of the remains of their 
carnality. It means the creation of a clean heart, and | 
the renewal of a right spirit. It means the crucifixion 4 
of the flesh. It means the destruction of the body of 
sin. It means the casting out of the strong man, who | 
was only bound in conversion. It means entire sanctifi- | 
cation. It means Perfect Love. . 

Assuredly the eleven Apostles were converted men 
long before the day of Pentecost. They had, years ago, 
left all and followed Jesus. He had said to them, “ Re- 
Joice, because your names are written in Heaven,” “T 
aim the Vine, ye are the branches,” “TI have called you 
friends.” But it was not till the day of Pentecost that 
they experienced the “purifying of their hearts by faith.” 
It was not until they had received the baptism with the 
Holy Ghost, that they were wholly cleansed from the 
stains of their inward corruption, and made truly pure 
in heart. 

Let us for a moment look at the results of this won- 
drous transformation, as we can trace them in the subse- 
quent history of some of the Apostles, Take the case of 
Peter. A very strong and earnest love had bound him 
to his Master from the first. He had been impulsive, 
and even forward in his service; he had been loud, and, 
we cannot doubt, sincere in his professions of devotion to 
Him ; he had exhibited the strength, and along with it, 


2 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


Or 


the weakness as well, of an ardent, impetuous nature ; 
he had attempted fo walk upon the sea, and, through 
want of faith, had failed; he had boastfully asserted 
that he would never forsake his Lord, but had fled with 
the others when he was bidden to put up his sword ; he 
had declared that he would die rather than deny his 
Saviour, but had been afraid to confess Him in the 
presence of a servant maid. 

But how changed was Peter after his heart had been 
purified by faith on the day of Pentecost. Still active 
and energetic in his Master’s cause, he was no longer 
timid and vacillating, but full of holy boldness. He did 
not hesitate to say to the amazed multitude, after the 
lame man had been healed—“ Ye denied the Holy One 
and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto 
you; and killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath 
raised from the dead.” 

Looking into the faces of the very chief priests and 
Sanhedrim who had condemned his Master, he said, 
“Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of 
Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, 
WHOM YE CRUCIFIED, whom God raised from the dead, 
even By Hr doth this man stand here before you 
whole.” And, when commanded not to speak nor teach 
in the name of Jesus; he gave utterance (with John) to 
that sublime aphorism which is ever the guide of the 
Christian, when his obedience to the civil magistrate 
comes in conflict with his duty to God—“ Whether it be 
right in the sight of God to hearken unto you, more than 
unto God, judge ye.” 

On another occasion, when Herod was guarding Peter 
with four quaternions of soldiers, on the night before his 


SANCTIFIED BY THE SPIRIT. 5S 


intended execution, the angel who came to his rescue, 
did not find him weakly lamenting his approaching fate, _ 
uor striking his head in despair against the wall of his 
prison, but wrapped in that profound and tranquil slum- 
ber, which indicated the peacefulness of a spirit in har- 
mony with God. Only once in his subsequent history, 
do we find a little of the old vacillation—when he failed 
to pursue a strictly straight-forward course toward the 
Gentile converts at Antioch, But he would seem, even 
then, to have received the rebuke of his fellow-apostle 
in humility and meekness, and to have found it a pre- 
cious oil, which did not break his head, because his 
heart was purified by faith; and he exhibits a spirit of 
true Christian magnanimity, by speaking afterward in 
his Epistle of his beloved brother Paul, and his myste- 
rious writings. 

And how was it with James and John? Boanerges 
—sons of thunder; full of energy and zeal. They also, 
like Peter, were earnest and active in their Master’s 
cause. But, mingled with their devotion to Him, there 
was also much fire that was not of His kindling; much 
self-seeking ; much unholy ambition. They had schemes 
of personal advancement. They desired the first places 
—to sit, one on “ His right hand, and the other on His 
left, in His kingdom.” They were ready to call down 
fire from heaven to destroy a village that would not re- 
ceive Him. Their hearts had not yet been purified by 
faith. 

But after the Pentecostal baptism, how marked is the 
change. James meekly lays down his life under the 
sword of Herod—the first of the Apostles to seal his 
testimony with his blood; and John lives to an ad- 


54. THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


vanced age, becoming the very embodiment of love, 
talking about it, preaching about it, writing about it, 
telling us what it is to be made perfect in love; and in 
his later years—if tradition is correct—he would some- 
times be carried into the assembly of Christian worship- 
pers, and looking benignly upon them would say, “ Lit- 
tle children, love one another.” He was not less a son 
of thunder after Pentecost, but vastly more a son of 
consolation. 

The Apostle Paul, in his first letter to the Church of 
the Thessalonians, uses the following language: “ And 
the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray 
God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved 
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 
“ Faithful is He who calleth you, who also will do it.” 
Now, it would appear, from a comparison of the different 
Epistles, that these same Thessalonians constituted one 
of the most healthy and flourishing churches of the 
Apostolic age. In the first Epistle, the Apostle ad- 
dresses them as a church whose members had been 
soundly converted by the power of the Holy Ghost, and 
whose work of faith and labor of love he could com- 
mend. In the words addressed to them, there is little 
censure and much commendation. He does not say to 
them, as to the Corinthians, “ Every one of you saith, 
T am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I 
of Christ.” He does not say, ‘‘ Put away from yourselves 
that wicked person.” He does not say, “There is ut- 
terly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with 
another.” He does not say, as to the foolish Galatians— 
“ Who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the 
truth ?” 


SANCTIFIED BY THE SPIRIT. 55 


And yet, even for these Thessalonians, Paul prays that 
they may obtain something which they have not yet 
obtained, something which they still needed; and that 
something was—entire sanctification. “The very God 
of peace sanctify you wholly.” They were already walk- 
ing in the light of justification, and, being justified, they 
were also partially sanctified; but the Apostle desires 
nothing less than that they may be wholly sanctified. 

When the second Epistle was written, we may well 
suppose that the Apostle’s prayer had been answered, 
for he says: ‘ We are bound to thank God always for 
you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith 
groweth exceedingly, and the charity (perfect love) of 
every one of you all toward each other aboundeth.” 
Surely the church of which this could be said, had been 
baptized by the Holy Ghost, and received the purifying 
of their hearts by faith. 

Justification and sanctification have often been con- 
founded, both by writers and speakers; some regarding 
them as identical, and others failing to distinguish be- 
tween them with sufficient definiteness and accuracy. 
Whilst the terms undoubtedly express different states of 
grace, it must be admitted they have much in common. 
In both justification and sanctification, everything has to 
be received from Christ; everything has to be received 
in a spirit of entire submissiveness and self-abnegation 
on our part; and everything has to be received by faith. 

Nor is it unimportant to remember that both these 
terms are used, in more senses than one, in the Sacred 
Scriptures. The word justify means, first, and com- 
monly, to account just—i. e., to regard the offender, for 
the sake of Jesus Christ, as though he had not sinned, 


56 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


This is the same thing as pardon, or forgiveness. “ Be- 
ing justified by faith, we have peace with God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ.” But it means, secondly, to 
approve; as in the text, “ But ye are washed,” which 
means born again; ‘but ye are sanctified,” which means 
(as I suppose) made holy; “but ye are justified,” which 
means (as I suppose) have received G'od’s approval “in 
the name of the Lord-Jesus, and by the Spirit of our 
God.” It will be seen at once, therefore, that this quo- 
tation from Paul furnishes no argument whatever in 
favor of the idea that sanctification comes before justifi- 
cation, in the ordinary sense of that term. 

Again, the term sanctify originally means to set apart 
for sacred uses; and thus, under the Law, it was ap- 
plied to things as well as persons—to the furniture of 
the tabernacle, for example, as well as to the priests 
who officiated there. It is applied, technically, in the 
New Testament to all Christians. Even the Church at 
Corinth, to whom the Apostle writes, “Ye are carnal, 
and walk as men,” are nevertheless addressed, in the 
beginning of the Epistle, as “sanctified in Christ Jesus.” 
But, secondly, the term signifies to cleanse from all in- 
ward pollution ; to deliver from in-dwelling corruption; 
to save from heart-sin; to make holy. In this sense 
sanctification signifies the same thing as entire sanctifica- 
tion; and it is in this sense that I employ it in the 
present work. We are now prepared to understand and 
to find the points of distinction between justification and 
sanctification. 

First: Justification, while not excluding the present, 
has reference, primarily and chiefly, to the past. If I 
commit a sin one moment, and am forgiven for it the 


SANCTIFIED BY THE SPIRIT. 57 


= 


next, it is, nevertheless, when so forgiven, a past sin. 
Sanctification, on the other hand, regarding the past as 
settled and cancelled by the blood of Christ, has refer- 
ence almost exclusively to the present and the future. 
A soul seeking justification inquires, “ How may I be 
forgiven for the sins that are past?” A soul seeking 
sanctification inquires, “How may I be kept from 
sinning now and in the future?” 

Secondly: Justification removes the guilt and con- 
demnation of sin; and sanctification removes from the 
heart that which brings guilt and condemnation, 7. e., 
sin itself. 

The term sin is used in the Bible, either in the sense 
of sin committed—an actual transgression, in thought, 
word, or deed—or sin n-dwelling, that depravity of 
heart which leads to all sinful acts; that inward cause, 
of which sins are the effects; that nature which we 
have by inheritance from our first parents, in the fall. 

In the one sense, sin is a voluntary violation of the 
divine law ; in the other it is an mvoluntary state of the 
heart. The one meaning implies guilt, the other de- 
pravity; the former requires pardon or remission, the 
latter cleansing or removal. The individual who is 
groaning under the burden of sing committed, wants to 
be forgiven; the one who is sensible of his in-dwelling 
corruption, wants to be cleansed. One seeks justifica- 
tion, the other sanctification. 

Thirdly: Christ, and Christ only, is the efficacious 
cause, both of justification and sanctification. But 
Christ is our justification in that He hung ‘upon the 
cross as our substitute, and bore our sins in His own 
body on the tree. He endured the penalty of the law 


58 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


instead of us. He gave Himself for us. He tasted 
death for every man. He was wounded for our trans- 
eressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. It is 
quite true that in every case of justification something 
is done inwardly as well as outwardly, nevertheless, the 
work, in a peculiar sense, is done for us, outside of us, 
by our blessed Saviour. 

On the other hand; Christ is our sanctification, as 
He baptizes us, and fills us, and dwells in us by the 
Comforter, the Holy Ghost, who was only given to the 
Church in His fulness after Jesus had been glorified. 
Sanctification is, therefore, a work performed peculiarly 
and specially within us. 

Fourthly: Justification is done once for all; it isa 
completed work ; it blots out forever all past sins. It may 
have to be repeated if sin is repeated, but always, when it 
has taken effect, it is a finished work ; it is not in any 
sense progressive. Sanctification, on the contrary, al- 
though it implies at the beginning the removal of that 
inward depravity which inclines us to evil, is yet always 
progressive, in degree. Entire sanctification, so far from 
excluding growth, is itself the best preparation for a 
healthful, symmetrical, and continuous growth. “ There 
will never,’ says Upham, “be a period, either m time or 
eternity, when there may not be an increase of holy love.” 

In sanctification, the tendencies to sin are removed, 
but the susceptibilities remain. On these Satan is ever 
ready to operate with his temptations, and in the present 
state of being, it will always be possible for us, as moral 
agents, to yield to his suggestions. There will always 
be the liability to sin, but never the unavoidable necessity 
to sin. We have a deliverer “mighty to save.” The 


SANCTIFIED BY THE SPIRIT. 59 


“non posse peccare” (not to be able to sin), is incompati- 
ble with probation. The “ posse non peccare” (to be able 
not to sin), is, by God’s grace, given to those who will 
receive it in Christ. We shall always, while in the body, 
have a peceable nature; but (if wholly sanctified) not a 
peccant nature. 

What says Paul? “Shall we continue in sin that 
grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that 
are dead to sin live any longer therein?” And again, 
the words of the Holy Ghost, through that eminent 
Apostle, come down to the Church in every age with all 
the force of a positive command: “ Likewise reckon ye 
also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin , but alive unto 
God through Jesus Christ our Lord 3 4. e, reckon your- 
selves dead to sin and trust in Christ to make the reckon- 
ing good. What you reckon, He will make real and 
true. 

We have already spoken of sin as either an act or a 
state. Now to be dead to sin as an act, is not to do that 
act. ‘To be dead to sin as a state, is not to be in that 
state. Most men are dead to the sin of murder as an act. 
They do not actually kill, but the Apostle John tells us 
that “he that hateth his brother ig a murderer ;’ and so, 
whoever cherishes hatred and malice in his heart is not 
dead to the sin of murder as a state. The illustration 
can easily be extended to other sins. 

There is a being of sin, back of the doing of sin. “A 
man is not a sinner,” says a late writer, “simply because 
he does evil; he does evil because he is a sinner. Train 
him as you will, evil will come out of him, because it is 
in him.” There are germ sins in the heart, out of which 
spring actual sins in the life. Paul distinguishes be- 


60 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


tween the flesh and the works of the flesh. ‘The flesh, 
used in that sense, is the body of sin; the depraved 
heart, the aggregate of the evil propensities, dispositions, 
and tendencies of the carnal nature. Every evil deed in 
that long, dark, dreadful list enumerated in the Epistle 
to the Galatians as the works of the flesh, arises out of 
some tendency in the unregenerate heart, which ten- 
dency, under Satan’s temptations, is liable to break forth 
into the corresponding act of wickedness. Now, in an 
immense majority of instances, to say the least, these dis- 
positions to evil, which, collectively, are called sin, or 
the body of sin, or in-bred sin, or in-dwelling sin, or de- 
pravity, or the flesh, are not wholly removed at the time 
of conversion. The Articles of the English Church are 
entirely correct in saying, “This infection of nature doth 
remain, yea, in them that are regenerated.” 

And yet, even in justification and regeneration, sin is 
brought into subjection. It continues in the heart, but it 
does not reign there. The promise to all Christians is 
“Sin shall not have dominion over you.” Let no justi- 
fied believer imagine for a moment that because he is 
not sanctified, or for any other reason, he has a license 
to sin. Whosoever is born of God, sinneth not.” 
“Te cannot sin,” without thereby incurring condemna- 
tion. The tendencies to evil may be strong within him, 
but the grace of God will be sufficient to keep him 
from falling into overt acts of sin, to enable him to 
walk in the light of justification, and even to grow con- 
tinually in grace. 

Still, however, there must be in such a heart frequent 
and protracted struggles. The strong man is bound, 
but not being cast out he makes desperate efforts to 


SANCTIFIED BY THE SPIRIT. 61 


burst his bonds and re-assert his supremacy in the 
household. “ The infection of nature” within, responds 
favorably to the temptations of Satan from without. 
When the individual would do good, evil is present 
with him. His will may be firm on God’s side, his 
faith may be strong, and sin may be kept in subjection, 
but the contest is often so fearful, that the language is 
truly applicable, “Ob, wretched man that I am! 
Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” 
(mar). And, in point of fact, while we do not for a 
moment limit or doubt the power of God to keep any of 
His children from falling, we believe the number to be 
very small who, stopping short with the grace of 
justification, and not seeking and finding that of 
entire sanctification, do yet wholly escape being brought 
into captivity to the law of sin and falling into back- 
sliding. 

In direct contrast with the “works of the flesh,” the 
Apostle sets before us “the fruits of the Spirit ”— 
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
faith, meekness, temperance—a blessed group of sweet 
Christian graces. Now, in Christ’s baptism, the Spirit 
comes into the heart of the believer, that He may abide 
with him forever. Such will be the result, if we do 
not grieve Him away by our unbelief and disobedience. 
And that man in whom the Spirit dwells, will enjoy in 
his heart, and bring out in his life, the fruits of the 
Spirit. 

Thus the promise addressed by Ezekiel to the scat- 
tered, peeled sons of Israel, will be fulfilled in the ex- ; 
perience of the consecrated, believing Christian, 7. e.— 
“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye 


62 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all 
your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I 
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and 
I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and 
I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my 
Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, 
and ye shall keep my judgments and do them.” Out of 
the heart. are the issues of life; and the heart, entirely 
sanctified and renewed, brings forth the fruits of the 
Spirit, in accordance with its renewed nature ; just as 
the unregenerate heart brings forth the works of the 
flesh, in accordance with is wnrenewed nature. 

In one of the American cities, a minister one day 
came into a meeting which was being held for the pro- 
motion of Christian holiness. He heard persons testify- 
ing to the cleansing power of the blood of Christ, and 
the keeping power of His Spirit, and was filled with 
wonder. At length he arose, and said, “Brethren, I 
want to understand this thing. Jam a minister of the 
Gospel. As I came to this meeting I passed by the 
race-course, where the trotting of fast horses is going on. 
I have a fast horse myself, and I felt a strong inclina- 
tion to turn in and try him against the others. But I 
reflected that it would not be scemly for a minister of 

thrist to be engaged in such amusements with jockeys 

and gamblers, who were probably racing their horses for 
money; so I passed on. I wanted to go in very much, 
but I did not go. Now, tell me, brethren, is that sanc- 
tification?” ‘ No, brother,” was the reply, “ sanctifica- 
tion takes the want-to out of the heart.” 

And this is true. Every one can see that a man who 
cherishes evil desires and passions in his heart, however 


SANCTIFIED BY THE SPIRIT. 63 


he may restrain them in the outward act, is not a sancti- 
fied or holy man. Jesus, when personally on earth, 
compared the Scribes and Pharisees to “whited sepul- 
chres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are 
within full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” 
And yet these Pharisees were exceedingly scrupulous in 
their ceremonial observances, and religious duties, To 
be religious is one thing, to be holy is quite another, 
Every holy man is religious, but every religious man is 
not holy. 

A story illustrating the same point has come down to 
us from the heathen mythology. Among the divinities, 
or semi-divinities, believed in by the Greeks, were the 
sirens, who dwelt upon an island on the west coast of 
Italy. They were gifted with wonderfully attractive 
voices, and sang beautiful songs. These siren songs, as 
they floated melodiously over the waves, lured the 
mariners who came within hearing to their own destruc- 
tion; for, so enraptured were these unhappy men by the 
unprecedented sweetness of the sounds which greeted 
their ears, that, in their infatuation, they would leap over- 
board in order to get to the Songstresses. Thus they 
were either drowned, or, if they succeeded in reaching 
the shore, they were put to death by the sirens them- 
selves. In all this we behold an admirable symbol of 
carthly and sensual pleasure. 

On one occasion it happened—as the legend informs 
us—that Ulysses, the celebrated Grecian general, whilst 
performing his protracted and arduous journeyings, after 
the destruction of Troy, passed near the island of the 
sirens. Knowing the dangerous character of their de- 
ceitful songs, he took the precaution, before coming 


64 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


within hearing, to stop the ears of his men with wax, 
and to have himself tied fast with ropes to the mast of 
the ship. When the ravishing sounds reached his ears, 
he made desperate efforts to free himself from his bonds, 
that he might leap into the sea; but his self-imposed 
restraint held him back, and all sailed away in safety. 
He wanted to go where the pleasant sounds invited him, 
but he could not. 

At another time the Argonautic expedition, led by 
Jason, was passing by the same place. Jason felt no 
necessity for stopping his men’s ears with wax, nor for 
binding himself to the mast. He had on board his 
vessel the celebrated musician Orpheus, at the sound of 
whose lyre—according to Grecian fable—the trees of 
the forest would bend in ecstasy. Jason had nothing to 
do, therefore, but just to set Orpheus playing upon his 
lyre. The sound was so much more entrancing, so 
much sweeter and lovelier than any that the sirens 
could produce, that though their songs were still wafted 
over the deep, they fell upon heedless ears ;—there 
was better music on board. They could have gone to 
the sirens if they had chosen, but they did not want 
to go. 


“ Unyssns, sailing by the Siren’s isle, 
Sealed first his comrades’ ears, then bade them fast 
Bind him with many a fetter to the mast, 
Lest those sweet voices should their souls beguile, 
And to their ruin flatter them the while 
Their homeward bark was swiftly sailing past; 
And thus the peril they behind them cast, 
Though chased by those weird voices many a mile. 
But yet a nobler cunning Orpheus used: 
No fetter he put on, nor stopped his ear, 


SANCTIFIED BY THE SPIRIT. 65 


But ever as he passed, sang high and clear 

The blisses of the gods—their holy joys, 

And with diviner melody, confused 

And marred earth’s sweetest music to a noise.” 
—Archbishop Trench. 


From various motives, and by various means, both 
converted and unconverted men may restrain themselves 
from sinful indulgences which they may, nevertheless, 
ardently desire to partake of. They may force them- 
selves to observe the right in outward conduct, when 
they haye little love for the right in their inmost hearts. 
But, is it not possible to be so filled with the Spirit—to 
have Christ so dwell in the heart by faith, that the 
tempting attractions of this world, although presented to 
the perceptions, shall scarcely influence at all the emo- 
tions, the desires or the will? The sanctified believer in 
Jesus has a music in his own soul, far sweeter than any 
siren-song of this delusive world. And, true it is, as the 
author of The Christian Year has beautifully written : 


“There are, in this loud, stunning tide 
Of human care and crime, 
With whom the melodies abide 
Of the everlasting chime; 
Who carry music in their heart 
Through dusky lane and wrangling mart; 
Plying their daily task with busier feet, 
Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat.” 


And as sanctification takes away the “want to” that 
inclines us to evil, so it puts in the “want to” that in- 
clines us to good, God writes His law in the heart so 
that it may be loved. 


His service then becomes love service, not task work. 
5 


66 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


The language of the heart purified by faith is, “Here am 
I, send me.” It meets every intimation of God’s will 
with a may J, rather than a must J. You may require 
your child to do your bidding, and secure his obedience ; 
but his reluctance is so great, his brow so clouded, his 
step so tardy and unwilling, that the act of obedience 
gives you little pleasure. He does what you command 
him from duty or compulsion, but not with the joyful 
acquiescence of a loving heart. You feel that if you 
could get into his heart and make him want to do what 
you require, you would possess the secret of success in 
governing him. “I wish,” said a thoughtful little boy, 
“that I could obey God as my dog obeys me; he just 
loves to do what J tell him.” The language of the 
Psalmist is: “I delight to do Thy will, O my God ;” 
and that of the blessed Saviour: ‘‘ My meat is to do the 
will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.” In 
a like spirit should willing service be rendered by every 
devoted child of God. May it be the experience of 
every Christian who reads this book, to leave the posi- 
tion of a servant and take joyously that of a son. 


REMARKS. 
it 


Justification is the beginning, and entire sanctification 
the completion of the work of inward holiness. But 
there may be an indefinite growth in holiness. 

160 

Justification is “that act of God’s grace in which He 

pardons our sins and accepts us as righteous in His 


SANCTIFIED BY THE SPIRIT. O7 


sight, for the sake of Christ.” The believer who has 
been thus pardoned and accepted is in a justified state. 


Ill. 


Sanctification is that act of divine grace whereby we 
are made holy. The believer in whom this act of grace 
has been performed is in a sanctified state. 


IV. 


Sanctification is the result of Christ’s baptism “ with 
the Holy Ghost and with fire.’ It should be definitely 
sought for, expected, and received at or near the begin- 
ning of the Christian life—and not postponed till at or 
near its close. 


Vg 


Sanctification, as a state of grace, “implies the whole 
heart and life devoted to God.” 


VI. 


“ Holiness is sanctification in per etuity ” 
perp Ne 


VII. 


The natural appetites, propensities, and affections were 
not originally sinful, but became so when man fell. 
Sanctification does not abolish these sensibilities of our 
nature, but takes the sin out of them, so that they may be 
exercised rightly and properly, and to the glory of God. 
This is what it is to keep under the body and bring it into 
subjection. Our Heavenly Father does not require us 
to eradicate our natural propensities, but to purify them. 
He does not require us to cease to be men, but He does 
require us to be holy men, 


68 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


VII. 


The appetites, propensities, and affections are readily 
susceptible of a wrong action, either in kind or degree. 
Satan, by his temptations, is ever ready to induce in them 
such wrong action, and thus to pervert them from their 
original purpose. It is here, chiefly, that the suscepti- 
bilities to sin remain, even in the sanctified believer. If 
he fails to watch and to pray and to abide in Christ, 
Satan will be on the alert to inject sin again into that 
heart which has been purified from its inward corrup- 
tion, even as he beguiled Eve by his subtlety. 


LX, 


“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin.” 
The justified believer, though not wholly delivered from 
the remains of carnality, may be kept by faith in Christ 
from falling into outward sin. On the other hand, the 
sanctified believer may be tempted, and may fall. 
Nevertheless, to have the heart purified by faith cer- 
tainly does not involve any peculiar danger of falling, 
but quite the reverse. It would be preposterous to 
maintain that where there is more holiness there is less 
safety. 


XxX. 


A sudden outburst of illness in a healthy man is no 
proof that disease always exists within him. The suscepti- 
bilities to disease exist, and these may be wrought upon 
by various causes, such as atmospheric changes, bad food, 
or impure water, so as to incite actual disease. But, in 
a condition of good health, the tendencies are to throw off 
all these influences, which are deleterious, and to main- 


SANCTIFIED BY THE SPIRIT. 69 


tain good health. So, if in a sanctified man, there 
should occur, by his own unwatchfulness, a sudden out- 
burst of sin, it is no proof that sin always exists within 
him, and must do so; nor that he was not sanctified be- 
fore the sin, any more than the other man was not 
healthy before the illness. The susceptibilities to sin re- 
main, and Satan brings to bear all manner of evil agen- 
cles, to incite these into actual sin. But the best way to 
escape his wiles, is to abide so fully and constantly in 
Christ, that you shall have sound spiritual health, and so 
resist every evil influence which would introduce sin 
into the heart. Temptation is not sin, but enticement, 
or incitement to sin. 


XI, 


“Accepting our punishment is just being of one mind 
with God, in hating and condemning sin, and longing 
for its destruction. It is submitting ourselves to the 
process of its destruction, and setting our seals to the 
righteousness of God in the process. Jt is the death- 
pang of the crucified Head thrilling through the members, 
and accomplishing in them what it did in the Je oii 

Tuomas Ersxinr. 


If instead of the phrase, “accepting our punishment,” 
we read Christ’s baptism, these observations—and_es- 
pecially the last—will be equally impressive and equally 
true. 

XII. 


Paul calls the Corinthians sanchified—although they 
were not holy in their lives. On the other hand he 
prays that the Thessalonians may be sanctified wholly— 


70 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


although they were abounding in faith and good works, 
The inference is unavoidable that all Christians are 
partially sanctified, and that many excellent Christians 
are not wholly sanctified. 

Reader, is it the Corinthian sanctification you are 
seeking or possessing for yourself in Christ, or is it 
the Thessalonian? Is it the partial—or is it the 
enture ? 


CHAPTER V. 
MADE PERFECT IN LOVE BY THE SPIRIT. 


ee inspired writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
begins the sixth chapter of that letter as follows, 
viz.: “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine 
of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again 
the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of 
faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of lay- 
ing on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and 
of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God 
permit.” 

It is evident that there is nothing here that should 
lead us for a moment to under-value the foundation, nor 
to under-estimate the importance of laying it aright. 
The Church of Christ, including every individual be- 
liever, is founded upon the Eternal Rock. “Other 
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is 
Jesus Christ.” Whoever would be a good reader, must 
first learn the alphabet. Whoever would bea mathema- 
tician, must first learn the properties of numbers. Who- 
ever would be an adept in any science must begin by 
acquainting himself with the elements of that science. 

And thus every believer needs to be indoctrinated into 
the fundamental principles of Christianity. These are 
enumerated in the text as (1.) Repentance from dead 
works, whether the works of the flesh in the uncon- 
verted, or the works of the Jewish law which could not 


give life. (2.) Faith toward God, which is the accept- 
71 


12 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


ance of His plan of salvation in Christ. (3.) The doc- 
trine of baptisms, or rather of washings—meaning the 
divers washings of the Jewish ritual—and, as the epistle 
was to Hebrew Christians, it was particularly fit that 
they should know the typical meaning of their own 
ceremonial law. (4.) Laying on of hands. In the 
Apostolic days the laying on of hands was employed in 
healing the sick, in setting apart the various officers of 
the Church for their respective positions and duties, and 
in conferring the Holy Ghost. (5 and 6.) The resurrec- 
tion of the dead and eternal judgment, which inyolye 
our hope and our fear for the unending future, 

It is quite clear that these fundamental doctrines of - 
Christianity are not to be regarded as of no importance, - 
nor of small importance. What we are urged to do is 
not to get away from the foundation, nor to lay a new 
foundation, but to proceed to build on the foundation 
already laid—not to spend all our lives in laying it again, 
but to go on unto perfection. The perfection here meant, 
I suppose, to be Christian perfection or holiness. 

The word perfect, as applied to any man, is very 
generally regarded as odious and absurd, not only by 
the unconverted but by Christians as well. Yet from a 
very early period in human history down to New Testa- 
ment times at least, there were men whom God called 
perfect. Nor can it be disputed, as I think, that the 
same remark continues to be true down to the present 
age, nor that it will be equally true to the end. 

“ Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, 
and Noah walked with God.” “Hast thou considered 
my servant Job, a perfect and an upright man, one that 
feareth God and escheweth evil.” “Iam the Almighty 


MADE PERFECT IN LOVE BY THE SPIRIT. res: 


God: walk before me, and be thou perfect.” “ Asa’s 
heart was perfect with the Lord all his days.” “ And 
thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy 
fathers, and serve Him with a perfect heart and with a 
willing mind.” “Be ye, therefore, perfect, even as your 
Father in heaven is perfeet.” “Be perfect.” “ For the 
perfecting of the saints.” “Whom we preach, warning 
every man and teaching every man, that we may present 
every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” 

Now, I am very far from denying that even the most 
noted worthies of the Scripture history, sometimes exhib- 
ited such traits of character, and were guilty of such prac- 


tices as were not at all perfect, when judged by the 


ordinary human standard ; and I am equally far from 
suggesting for a moment, the preposterous idea that 
God’s standard of perfection is lower than man’s. 
Nevertheless, the undeniable fact remains, that, by the 
grace of God, these servants of His had been brought 
into such a condition of heart that He could, and did, 
call them perfect. Let us ascertain, if possible, what 
that condition was. 

The word perfection is, undoubtedly, employed in 
the Scriptures in more senses than one. We have the 
expression perfect as pertaining to the conscience, where 
Justification, the perfect remission of past sins is meant, 
Then, again, we read, “To make the Captain of their 
salvation perfect through suffering.” Jesus took not on 
Him the nature of angels, but He took on Him the 
seed of Abraham, and was fitted for the work of human 
redemption by assuming our humanity, and suffering 
with and for us. In that sense, He was made perfect 
through sufferings; and in that sense also, the disciple, 


TA THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


like his Master, may be made perfect, 2. ¢., fitted for the 
work he has to do, or the place he has to occupy in God’s 
building, by the discipline of suffering and trial. Still, 
again, in the third chapter of Philippians, Paul claims 
perfection in the fifteenth verse, and disclaims it in the 
twelfth. That which he claims is doubtless Christian 
perfection or aclean heart. That which he disclaims, 
but which he is pressing toward, is the eternal perfect- 
edness of the saints in light, when the resurrection 
body, joined to the soul in endless union, shall promote, 
instead of retarding, as does our corruptible body now, 
the unceasing exercises of holy love and holy joy. 

Christian perfection is not the absolute perfection of 
Deity. God’s perfection is infinite in degree, and ap- 
plies to all His attributes. It is inherent in Himself, 
and wholly independent of all other existences. He 
stands alone, and is the only absolutely perfect Being in 
the universe. The holiest Christian has no perfection 
which is not derived from Christ, and which is not 
every moment dependent upon His merits. “ We are 
nothing, Christ is all.” 

Christian perfection is not the perfection of the angels, 
nor that of the redeemed in glory. ‘True it is, indeed, 
that holiness in its nature is ever the same, but in 
heaven its blessed exercises are not interrupted or sus- 
pended, as they are liable to be on earth, by physical 
and other causes. 

Nor will those who are permitted to dwell in that 
happy place be any longer subject to the heavy and 
perpetual temptations which assail even the holiest 
believer here. Sanctification does not bestow upon its 
possessor freedom from temptation, but freedom from 


MADE PERFECT IN LOVE BY THE SPIRIT. 75 


sin; not freedom from spiritual warfare, but freedom 
from defeat. And this only when looking unto, and 
abiding in Jesus. 

Paul describes the true spiritual warfare, as a wrestling, 
“not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, 
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of 
this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly places.” 
—(mar.) In order to wage this war, therefore, we have 
to get into heavenly places. The strong man, who has 
possession of our hearts, must be not only bound but 
cast out. ‘The foes must be expelled from our own 
household; our hearts must be entirely loyal to our 
Commander. If there are traitors within, they will be 
constantly endeavoring to open the door to the enemies 
without. 

Entire sanctification, or Christian perfection—a heart 
made perfect in love—is one of the most important 
qualifications for the soldier who would do valiantly in 
the army of the Lamb. The armor which the Apostle 
s0 graphically describes in the Epistle to the Ephesians 
—armor for the head, for the breast, for the body, for 
the feet and for each hand—is an armor which the 
Christian must wear, and which he must use so long as 
he liyes in this world. It is to be employed, however, 
not against the citadel of his own heart—which is sup- 
posed to be already wholly surrendered to the Lord— 
but against the hosts of Satan and of sin all around 
him, 

Christian Perfection does not pertain to the physical 
system, nor to the intellect. It is not Adamic perfec- 
tion. The progenitor of our race was, doubtless, created 
with a perfect body and a perfect mind. He was not 


76 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


omniscient ; but so far as his knowledge was permitted 
to extend, it was right knowledge—i. e., a knowledge of 
things as they really were, and of their true relations to 
each other. He was not liable to be deceived either by 
his perceptions or his judgment, either in the acquisition 
of facts, or the deduction of conclusions from them. 
What he perceived, he perceived correctly ; and what he 
knew, he knew correctly. And yet even he, because he 
could not know all things, might make a mistake—and 
so, for anything we know, may an angel. 

But with us, in our fallen condition—all our faculties 
and powers being crippled by sin, our bodies subject to 
disease and death, our minds intimately associated with 
them, and partaking of their infirmity—the case is en- 
uirely different. Our senses, the avenues through which 
information reaches us from the external world, may 
themselves deceive us. The supposed facts upon which 
our judgments about many things are based, may not be 
real facts. The premises from which we reason may be 
fallacious; the reasoning itself may be unsound; the 
conclusion may be incorrect. 

And if our judgments are thus liable to error, our 
practice also will be liable to mistake. In our present 
state of being, a perfect knowledge of things, either as 
they are in themselves, or as they are related to cach 
other, is wholly impossible. And God does not require 
such perfect knowledge as the necessary condition of 
Gospel holiness. Imperfections, infirmities, and errors 
will cling to us so long as we are in the body. These 
are sometimes called sins of ignorance, but they cannot 
be regarded as identical with moral evil. To what ex- 
tent the Christian—who puts himself wholly in God’s 


MADE PERFECT IN LOVE BY LHE- SPIRIT, Ne 


hands for guidance and instruction—may expect to be 
delivered from mistakes in opinion and practice, I do 
not feel prepared to say. There is doubtless such a 
thing as a sanctified Judgment, and for this, every Chris- 
tian should devoutly pray; but a sanctified judgment 
does not imply infallibility. 

God has a right to require of each of us, all that we 
might have rendered to Him if Adam had not fallen; 
but, for the sake of Jesus Christ, He mercifully remits 
and forgives all things in which we unavoidably fall 
short of that standard. Without requiring mental or 
physical perfection, He confers upon His consecrated, 
believing children, the inestimable grace of Christian 
Perfection. 

Dispossessing our minds, then, of all these erroneous 
ideas, having ascertained what Christian Perfection is 
not, let us now proceed to inquire what it 7s, A ques- 
tion so momentous can find a satisfactory answer no- 
where else but in the Book which is “ profitable for doc- 
trine”—the teachings of the prophets, of the apostles, 
and of the Saviour Himself. And the humble, candid 
inquiring mind, searching the Scriptures daily “whether 
these things are so,” will not be left long in doubt as to 
what it is that constitutes the Holiness, or the Perfec- 
tion, which God requires of His people, and which He 
confers upon them as a grace and a privilege under the 
Gospel dispensation. 

When, on a certain occasion, Jesus was asked , * Which 
is the great commandment in the Law?” His answer 
was—* Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 
This is the first and great commandment ; and the 


78 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law 
and the Prophets.” All the teachings of the Old Testa- 
ment, therefore, we must infer, hinge upon these two 
commandments—the first and second tables of the Law 
—love God, and love man. 

The same truth is expressed by the Apostle in his 
Epistle to the Romans,*in one pithy sentence: “Love is 
the fulfilling of the Law.” Now, all that God requires 
of us, is the fulfilling of His law; and if that is com- 
prised in love, then, he who loves aright fulfils the law 
—pleases God, and is, in the Christian sense, perfect. 
Again, He writes to Timothy—“ Now the end of the 
commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and of a 
good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” Love, there- 
fore, flowing out of a sanctified heart, a conscience void 
of offence, and a sincere faith; that is the end of the 
commandment—that is Christian Perfection. “A new 
commandment,” said the Lord Jesus to His disciples, “I 
give unto you,”’—a commandment which may supersede 
all others, because it includes them all—“ That ye love one 
another.” And the beloved John tells us of a “perfect 
love which casteth out fear ;’ and that if we love one 
another, “G'od’s love is perfected in us.” Christian Per- 
fection, therefore, my dear reader, is nothing else than 
Perfect Love. 

The man who loves God supremely, and his neighbor 
as himself; who enthrones God as it were in the very 
centre of his heart, and allows Him to reign there with- 
out a rival, and who, while loving God above everything 
else, yet loves everything else also as God would have 
him loye it, is, in the Scriptural sense of the terms, a 


MADE PERFECT IN LOVE BY THE SPIRIT. 79 


holy or a perfect man. Such an one may be rich or 
poor; he may be learned or ignorant ; he may have one 
talent or five; his body may be healthy or diseased ; his 
mind may be active or sluggish; his Judgment may be 
strong or weak; his involuntary imperfections and in- 
firmities may be few or many ; he may differ much from 
the angels, and much from Adam, but he bears—in his 
measure—the moral image of God, for “God is love.” 

Thus, in the Sermon on the Mount, when the Saviour 
s contrasting human love, which only extends to friends 
ind neighbors, with the love of God, who “ maketh His 
sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain 
on the just and on the unjust,” He tells us, that in order 
to show by our likeness to such a Father that we are 
His true children, we must adopt His sentiments, and 
love in our degree as He loves; i. e.— Love your enc- 
mies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that 
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you 
and persecute you.” And it is in this connection that 
He employs the stupendous words, “ Be ye therefore 
perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is per- 
fect.” That is to say—Be ye perfect in love, and thus— 
to the extent of your finite capacity—like Him who is 
Perfect Love. 

We do not hesitate to say that holiness or perfection, 
in the sense in which it has just been explained, is re- 
quired of all Christians, And, if required of all, it is 
the privilege of all to obtain it.» Like every other Gos- 
pel blessing, it is the gift of God in Christ; and like 
every other Gospel blessing, it is to be received by faith. 
It is a part of our Father’s legacy to His children. Let 
none despise it, nor fail to seek and find it. 


80 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


In every age of the Church, God has had His experi- 
mental witnesses to the wondrous grace of perfect love. 
Not the least conspicuous among these were the founders 
of the Society of Friends. George Fox, and many of 
his coadjutors, not only taught the possibility of holiness 
—through faith in Christ—as a doctrine, but they 
claimed it for themselves as an experience. 

“They asked me,” says George Fox, in giving an ac- 
count of his examination before some magistrates In 
Derby, “ whether I was sanctified. I answered, Yes, 
for I was in the Paradise of God. Then they asked me 
if I had no sin. I answered, Christ, my Saviour, had 
taken away my sin; and in Himisnosin. They asked 
me, how we knew that Christ did abide in us. — I said, 
By His Spirit, which He has given us. Then they 
temptingly asked if any of us were Christ. I answered, 
Nay ; we were nothing! Christ was all.” 

Equally explicit were the teachings of John Wesley 
and the early Methodists. In opposition to Count Zin- 
zendorf—who maintained that all sin is removed from 
the heart in conyersion—Wesley upheld the doctrine, 
that sin still exists, as an “infection of nature,” in justi- 
fied believers. But he also clearly recognized the possi- 
bility of its entire removal; such removal being effected 
by an act of God’s grace, and the result to the individual 
being entire sanctification—Christian perfection, or per- 
fect Love. 

The questions still addressed to Methodist ministers at 
their ordination, indicate the same thing. ‘The candidate 
is asked—“ Have you faith in Christ? Are you going 
on unto perfection? Do you expect to be made perfect 
in love in this life?” Not—Do you expect to be made 


MADE PERFECT IN LOVE BY LHky SPIRIT, 81 


perfect in knowledge, or in wisdom, or in practice ? but, 
im love. 

But we need not particularize the distinctive teach- 
ings of Christian sects, Every denomination has had 
its witnesses. Some of the most holy men and women 
of whom we have any account, have been Roman Catho- 
lics. Such were Tauler, and the friends of God, Thomas 
4 Kempis, Fénélon, and Lady Guyon. The names of 
many holy men and women adorn the annals of the 
Church of England. I need only mention Archbishop 
Leighton; Swiss Calvinists like @ Aubigné; Presbyte- 
rians like President Edwards, and James Brainerd Tay- 
lor; Baptists like Dr. Levy, of Philadelphia; Congre- 
gationalists, Moravians, Brethren. All these, and other 
sects, have had among their members those who could 
bear testimony to the “perfect love which casteth out 
fear.” 

And never, since the Apostolic Age, have larger ac- 
cessions been made to the ranks of these witnesses than 
In our own days. Thousands and tens of thousands 
throughout Christendom have been awakened in recent 
years to an apprehension of their privileges in the Gos- 
pel, such as they had not known before ; and coming to 
Jesus with consecrated hearts, they are entering by the 
open door of faith into the fulness of the blessing of the 
Gospel. To His name be all the glory. Amen. 


82 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
REMARKS. 
it 


To be holy is not to be perfect in body, it is not to be 
perfect in mind, it is not to be infallible in judgment, it 
is not to be faultless in practice; it is simply to be pure 
in heart; it is simply to be freed from sin. 


II. 


Christian perfection makes its possessor perfect in his 
Christianity, not necessarily perfect in anything else. 


III. 


Perfect Christianity, or Christian perfection, consists 
in perfect love. Perfect love is that which loves God 
supremely, and your neighbor as yourself. Such love is 
the fulfilling of the law and the end of the command- 
ment. 

IV. 


Love is in proportion to faith, Little faith, little 
love; much faith, much love; perfect faith, perfect love. 
Perfect faith can only exist in connection with perfect 
surrender to God. 


Ve 


Out of a heart made perfect in love, there must neces- 
sarily flow a life devoted to God. “A good tree cannot 
bring forth evil fruit.” 


Vis 


Knowledge, judgment, and practice will always be 
imperfect in our present state of being. But Christian 


MADE PERFECT IN LOVE BY THE SPIRIT. 83 


perfection implies perfect submission, perfect faith, per- 
fect love, and, up to the standard of knowledge, perfect 
obedience, 

Wane 


Christian perfection is a bestowment and an imparta- 
tion, wholly derived from the merits of Christ and con- 
stantly dependent upon the in-dwelling Spirit. It 
cannot exist a single moment in any branch that is not 
abiding in the Vine. 


VeLITs 


Christian perfection does not exclude growth. Both 
in nature and in grace God’s works may be perfect in 
every stage of their development, and yet constantly 
growing in their perfections, 


1D.@ 


Christian perfection in the sense explained in this 
chapter is required of all Christians ; and what is duty 
is also privilege. Every believer may and should have 
a heart made perfect in love. 


The absolute standard of right and wrong is the ab- 
solute will of God, but the practical standard for human 
beings is the revealed will of God; and the gospel 
standard is the law of perfect love. Every conscious 
violation of God’s known will is a conscious sin. Every 
violation of His revealed will, not known to be such, is 
a sin of ignorance. These, as well as conscious sins, re- 
quire an atonement. God can forgive everything, but 
His eye of infinite purity does not leave even the 


84 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


slightest sin unnoticed. “Tt is not our own conscience,” 
says H. W.S., “nor our measure of light, but the truth 
of God that is the standard by which sin is to be 
measured.” 

“Sins of ignorance” are spoken of in the Law of 
Moses, as possible, but not necessary. They might or 
might not occur. Ignorance of God’s will, when the 
knowledge of it is within our reach, is itself criminal. 
And ignorance is no valid excuse for sins committed 
under such circumstances; although God, in His mercy, 
provides sufficient sacrifice for these, as for all other sins 
—in Christ. 

“When he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty.” 
“Though he wist it not,” (did not know it was sin when 
he committed it)—“yet is he guilty, and shall bear his 
iniquity,” (when he does know it.) When sins com_ 
mitted in ignorance are ascertained to be sins, then they 
offend the conscience, and bring us into condemnation 
—then we need to confess them and plead the merits of 
the atoning blood for their remission; and as they are 
no longer sins of ignorance, but conscious sins, they 
must be forsaken as well. 

But sin is not imputed when there is no law. Evils 
arising out of unavoidable ignorance, are not sins, in the 
sense of attaching guilt to the perpetrator. They are 
his misfortune, not his fault. Their penalty may be 
suffering, but it is not condemnation. Sin is in the will 
and purpose, rather than in the act. “ Where there is 
no law there is no transgression.” “If we walk in the 
light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with 
another,” that is I suppose fellowship with God, “and the 
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 


MADE PERFECT IN LOVE BY THE SPIRIT. 85 


DQ 


“Welcome alike the crown or cross; 
Trouble I may not seek, nor peace, 
Nor toil, nor rest, nor gain, nor loss, 
Nor joy, nor grief, nor pain, nor ease, 
Nor life, nor death: but ever groan 
‘Father, Thy only will be done? ” 


FarueEr, Thy all- absorbing love 
Deve out my heart in love to Thee ; 
Yet, save Thy love came down to ma 

Mine never could have reached above. 


Lord, I have nothing; till, within, 
Thy grace revealed "Thy blessed cross, 
My very righteousness was dross, 
And all my life a trace of sin. 


Thou asked for that which Thou had’st made, 
My life, myself, my love, my heart, 
Yet when Thou would’st Thy grace impart, 
My gift, though poor, was long delayed. 


At length, surrendered to Thy call, 
I sear ae knew then what I gave; 
I cannot now know all I have, 


But I have Christ and He is SAY? 
We Caw. 


So let us love, dear love, like as we ought, 
Love is the Lesson, which the Lord us taught. 
Edmund Spencer. 


CHAPTER GY i: 
CONSECRATION AND FAITH. 


ls my reader has followed me through the preceding 
chapters, and if he -has searched the Scriptures daily 
whether these things are so, he must already have de- 
cided in his own mind either that it is his duty and 
privilege, under the Gospel, to be holy, or that it 1s not. 
If he has adopted the latter conclusion, then he might 
as well close the book at this point, and so far as he is 
concerned, I might as well not have written it. It is of 
no use to talk about how holiness is to be obtained to a 
man who does not believe that it can be obtained at all. 
The human mind is so constituted that it will not put 
forth a volition, nor an effort, nor feel under any obliga- 
tion to do a thing which it believes impossible to be 
done, or to obtain a thing which it believes impossible 
to be obtained. A Christian believer may regard holi- 
ness as a thing to be very much desired, but if he regards 
it also as a thing not to be obtained, he is not likely to 
concern himself about the conditions on which it is be- 
stowed nor to determine to have it at whatever cost. 

If, however, my Christian reader has been brought, 
by my feeble words, or by any instrumentality whatever, 
to believe that holiness is required, and therefore possi- 
ble, I trust that he has been brought also earnestly to 
desire it. A deep conviction of one’s needs in this re- 
gard, is a preparatory state of mind very favorable to its 
reception. It is they that hunger and thirst who are to 

86 


CONSECRATION AND FAITH. 87 


be filled; and if any one under a deep sense of his in- 
ward corruption is saying with David, “As the hart 
panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after 
Thee, O God ;” or, “ My soul thirsteth for God, for the 
living God ;” or, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, 
and renew a right spirit within me ;” or, with the poet— 


“Break off the yoke of in-bred sin, 
And fully set my spirit free, 
I cannot rest till pure within, 
Till I am wholly lost in Thee.” 


To such an one I believe it may be said, This full sal- 
vation is “very nigh thee.” 

If, then, a proper beginning has been made in a fixed 
belief that holiness is attainable, and an earnest desire 
for it, the next step which the seeking, inquiring soul 
will find it necessary to take, is an act of unalterable 
consecration to God. Consecration is, by some, con- 
founded with sanctification, but I shall employ the term 
in its usual acceptation—that, namely, of entire surren- 
der to Christ. Consecration in this sense is necessary to 
sanctification, but not identical with it. Sanctification 
implies consecration, but it also implies more. Conse- 
cration 1s our own act; sanctification is God’s act. Con- 
secration has the same relation to sanctification, that 
repentance has to justification. It is a deeper repent- 
ance, a completer submission, a fuller and more detailed 
surrender, 

Such an act of consecration in which we yield up our- 
selves and our all—body, soul, and spirit, time, talents, 
possessions, all that we have, and all that we are—in 
unconditional surrender to God, is necessary to every 
one who would receive at His hands the priceless blessing 


88 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


of a clean heart. That blessing, like every other good 
thing promised in the Gospel, is to be received by faith ; 
and it is only by entire surrender that we can come on 
to believing ground, and be in a position to exercise faith 
for so great a boon. 

We cannot, with any show of reason, believe that God 
will bestow upon us that wondrous blessing while we | 
are living in a state of voluntary rebellion against Him. 
So long as we indulge any known sin, or omit any 
known duty, we cannot have faith to believe that God 
will sanctify us wholly ; and without faith it is just as 
impossible for the believer to be sanctified, as for the 
sinner to be pardoned. 

Christians are often complaining, and doubtless with 
justice, of their own lack of faith. There are compara- 
tively few who have a faith so strong, that in the lan- 
guage of the Saviour, they can remove mountains. And 
if our faith is dim and weak, is it not because our con- 
secration is imperfect? Is it not because we are keeping 
back part of the price? By retaining self-life in our 
hearts, are we not making it impossible to believe in 
God fully, and to trust Him confidingly, and to obey 
Him implicitly ?. Absolute and unconditional surrender 
to God is a necessary pre-requisite to the faith that stag- 
gers not at the promises of God through unbelief. ‘‘Be- 
loved, of our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence 
toward God.” 

In the sixth chapter of Romans, 13th verse, the 
Apostle clearly sets forth the consecration that is re- 
quired of Christians: “ Neither yield ye your members 
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield 
yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, 


CONSECRATION AND FAITH. 89 


and your members as instruments of righteousness unto 
God.” He is now addressing Christian believers no 
Jonger dead in trespasses and sins, but “alive from the 
dead.” They had already come in repentance as sinners 
surrendering themselves to be saved or forgiven, but 
now he calls upon them as Christians to yield themselves 
and their members in unconditional surrender to God and 
His service. Consecration is not simply a mass-offering, 
but a surrender in detail. | 

Are my readers willing thus to make an inventory of 
themselves, their members, and _ their possessions, and 
hand all over to the Lord, saying to Him from their in- 
most hearts, each one for himself, “ Not my will, but 
Thine be done.” “Have Thy own way with me and 
mine in all particulars. Iam willing to receive what 
Thou givest, and to want what Thou withholdest, and 
to relinquish what Thou takest, and to suffer what Thou 
inflictest, and to be what Thou requirest, and to do what 
Thou commandest.” 

Where shall we begin? Shall it be with your intel- 
lect, your brain power, your gifts and talents, and accom- 
plishments? What have you been thinking about since 
your conversion? Have you been thinking little of 
yourselves and much of God, or much of yourselves and 
little of God? Have you been planning and devising 
how to promote God’s glory, or how to serve your own 
interests and pleasure? Have your talents been devoted 
to the service of Christ or the service of self? Has 
God been in all your thoughts, and are you willing now 
to give up your thinking powers to the Lord, and allow 
Him to “bring into captivity every thought to the 
obedience of Christ?” “Finally, brethren, whatsoever 


90 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever 
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, 
if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think 
on these things.” 

The eye and ear—those organs of sense through which 
Satan so often introduces his temptations from without 
—will you surrender them to the Lord? Will you say 
with Thomas Ellwood, 


“Oh, let mine eyelids closed be 
To what concerns me not to see! 
Oh, let me ever shut mine ear 
To what concerns me not to hear !”’ 


So far as the things of this world are concerned, “the 
eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with 
> But rather let the Christian say, “ Thine eye 
shall see the King in His beauty ;” or “Open Thou 
mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things oud of 
Thy law ;” and let him remember that “ My sheep hear 
my voice.” Give eye and ear unto the Lord 

The tongue also—that unruly evil which no man can 
tame. Nowhere can it be kept safely, except in God’s 
hands. How have your tongues been employed, be- 
loved, since your conversion; have they been telling 
what God has done for your souls? Talking about His 
wondrous ways? ‘Teaching transgressors His ways? 


hearing.’ 


Praising Him who hath taken your feet from the mire 
and clay, and established them upon the Rock? Many 
Christians are possessed of a dumb spirit. ‘They are 
voluble enough in praising their earthly friends or pos- 
sessions. Yes; they will be heard day after day prais- 


CONSECRATION AND FAITH. 9] 


ing horses, dogs, books, birds, the landscape, works of 
nature and of art, but never a word of praise is heard 
for Him who redeemed them. And just here the stumb- 
ling-block is, to many, the hindrance in the way of their 
consecration, They are afraid to surrender themselves 
wholly to the Lord, lest they may have to speak of Him 
before the people; and there are those who would al- 
most as willingly surrender up their natural life, as 
open their mouths publicly in the Lord’s cause. Here 
is one of the strongholds of Satan in too many 
hearts. But now, as of old, when Satan is cast out, 
the dumb speak—nay, more, the tongue of the dumb 
sometimes sings. Did not the prophet say it would 
be so? 

And again. The tongue that is mute in God’s praise, 
is it not sometimes too busy with your neighbor’s char- 
acter? Is it more ready to confess other people’s sins 
than your own? Does it never prevaricate? Does it 
not sometimes conceal your real thoughts, instead of ex- 
pressing them ? Have you not found it really “ unruly?” 
Will you not put it in the hands of Him who is alone 
able to control it? The only safe place for our tongues 
is with the Lord; and let us give them to Him will- 
ingly and gladly, to be used by Him in any way that 
He may choose, or disused entirely if it be His will, to 
teach, to exhort, to testify, to pray, to praise, or to re- 
main silent before Him. 

And your hands, beloved, how have they been em- 
ployed since you have been Christians ? Working for 
yourselves? Accumulating the treasures of this world ? 
Gathering together those things which please the natural 
man, but cannot satisfy the longings of the inmost soul ? 


92 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


Give them to the Lord, to work for Him. Possibly He 
might not change their employment at all; you may 
still pursue your lawful avocations ; but you must make 
even your secular business religious business, and dis- 
charge it to the Lord, and not to men. And if 
He calls you to use your hands in another way 
entirely, they are His, let Him have His own way with 
them. 

And your feet, which have been swift, it may be, to 
run upon your own errands, are you willing they should 
be both swift and beautiful to run upon God’s errands? 
Surrender them to Him, and whether they are still per- 
mitted to carry you about in your lawful pursuits where 
you are, as heretofore, or whether He leads you far 
hence to bear glad tidings, or to minister in any way to 
His little ones, with firm and willing feet you are to 
follow “the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” 

Your money also, your farms, and your merchandise, 
all your earthly possessions must be given to the Lord. 
The silver and the gold are His, and the cattle upon a 
thousand hills. And wealth is a good thing when it is 
dedicated to the Lord and used in His service. We may 
be glad that He does not leave all the silver and gold in 
the hands of His enemies. He has His faithful stewards, 
who are diligently and profitably employing their Lord’s 
money, using it in promoting His cause upon the earth, 
and in doing good to the bodies and souls of their fellow- 
men. He knows the hearts of His people—who of them 
can bear the peculiar temptations connected with great 
wealth, and who cannot—and He allows some to be 
rich, and others poor. He doeth all things well; and 
we must leave our riches or our poverty, just as we must 


CONSECRATION AND FAITH, 93 


leave our health or our sickness, our happiness or our 
suffering, entirely in His hands. 

I do not lose sight entirely of second causes, nor do I 
undervalue a proper prudence and forethought in refer- 
ence to outward affairs. The husbandman must prepare 
the ground and sow the seed; and this is not less esscn- 
tial, because he will, after all, have no crop unless God 
sends the rain and the sunshine. In like manner it is 
doubtless true that there are laws of business, the ob- 
servance or non-observance of which tends to success or 
failure in the accumulation of wealth. 

But God is in all and over all; and how often does 
He thwart the best devised schemes for obtaining riches, 
leaving one man, whose business qualifications may be 
of the highest order, comparatively poor, and pouring 
wealth into the lap of another, almost without effort or 
thought on the part of the recipient. Reader, if the 
Lord has entrusted thee with great wealth, remember 
that it is His gift. He that giveth can also take away. 
Do not grasp it too tightly. Do not let the love of 
money take root in thy heart. If He permits thee to 
keep it to the end of life, thank Him for it, and glorify 
Him with it. If He take it from thee, say, “Thy will 
be done.” —Consecrate thy possessions and thy business 
to the Lord. 

And your time must be the Lord’s. How easily He 
can say to each of us, Time to thee shall be no longer. 
And yet there are a great many Christians who find it 
hard to spare time from their outward business to attend | 
to the claims of God.“ Friend,” said Anthony Benezet 
to a man who pleaded that he had no time to hear him, 
“dost thou think thou wilt ever find time to die?” 


94 TILE OFFICES OF THE IOLY SPIRIT. 


Those who devote all their time, even at a great sacrifice 
of their earthly interests to the Lord’s work, yet con- 
stantly find some, where they travel, who do not have 
the time to go and hear the message they have to de- 
liver. Give your time to the Lord. Ask Him how to 
spend every hour to His glory. He may not take you 
away from your present mode of employing the moments 
that make up a lifetime; but if He should do so, remem- 
ber that the time is His, and He must have the direction 
of it. Spend your time to His glory here, and you shall 
spend your eternity to His glory hereafter. 

You must leave your reputation in God’s hands. A 
good name amongst our fellow-men, and_ especially 
amongst. our fellow-Christians, is not to be under- 
valued, but we must make it our first object to please 
our Father in Heaven, and then trust Him for what men 
shall say of us, and what they shall think of us. It is 
not at all uncommon for the best and holiest of men to be 
misunderstood, and therefore misrepresented, not only by 
the unconverted, but by other Christians, and sometimes 
even by those who are not less holy than themselves. 
When Jesus was personally upon earth He was followed 
at one time by hosannas, and at another with revilings 
by the fickle multitude. He was blasphemed, persecu- 
ted, and condemned to death by the Scribes and Phari- 

ces who sat in Moses’ seat; and He was never under- 

stood even by His own immediate followers, who were 
constantly in His presence, and hearing the gracious 
words that proceeded out of His mouth. 

One of the most eminent of England’s Christian 
jurists, Sir Matthew Hale, in the conscientious discharge 
of what he regarded his duty as a judge, sent one of the 


CONSECRATION AND FAITH. 95 


most eminent of England’s Christian preachers (albeit, 
he was only a converted tinker) to prison—the Bedford 
Jail—the den where he dreamed his immortal dream, 
Nor could either of these excellent and pious men un- 
derstand nor agree with the equally excellent and pious 
George Fox, nor the latter with the no less excellent and 
pious Richard Baxter. It is, indeed, a somewhat melan- 
choly thought that. many, even of the salé of the earth, 
know each other in this world only as opponents. In the 
other world, doubtless, they will be companions, and sit 
down at the same feast. 

We cannot command the good opinion of our fellow- 
men. [ven if we could do s0, there is no reason to be- 
lieve that it would be a blessing, for the Saviour says, 
“Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you.” 
‘The one necessary thing for the believer is that if men 
speak all manner of evil against him, it may he falsely. 
But if when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it pa- 
tiently, this is acceptable with God.’ Let us then seek 
the honor which cometh from God, and leave our repu- 
tation in His hands. 

Our families and the objects of our tenderest affections 
—parents, children, husbands, wives, lovers, friends, must 
be surrendered to the Lord. It does not follow that He 
will be more likely to take them from us because we 
yield them up unreservedly into His hands; possibly, 
the reverse is true. But here also, our wills must be in 
entire submission to God’s will. 

The following cases, illustrating this form of consecra- 
tion, are taken, slightly abridged, from a valuable little 
work, entitled, “Sanctification Practical,’ by Rey. J. 
Boynton ; 


96 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
i 


A lady, relating her experience in our hearing, said: 


“T had long prayed— 


“<The dearest idol I have known, 
Whate’er that idol be, 
Help me to tear it from Thy throne, 
And worship only Thee,’ 


But I little knew what. I was praying for, until God 
came and took my child and then my husband away, 
and I was left alone in the world. ‘Then I was brought 
to see that I had been loving the creatures more than the 
Creator. Oh, how my wicked heart rebelled! Oh, 
how I murmured against God! How cruel I felt He 
was to take my loved ones from me! Still I knew it 
was wrong to feel thus, and I struggled hard and strug- 
eled long to sink into the will of God, and to feel that 
the death of these loved ones was all right. Often be- 
fore their death, as I would be praying for a clean heart, 
the thought was suggested, ‘ You must be willing to give 
up your family.’ But I tried to believe that that was 
the temptation of Satan in order to destroy my peace; 
but when they died my eyes were opened. Then I could 
see what the idols were. Oh, how I wept! How I 
struggled none can imagine, but those who have had a 
similar experience! At length I was enabled to give 
up my loved ones, and say in reference to their death 
‘Lord, Thou doest all things well.’ Then my faith laid 
hold on Christ as my all-sufficient Saviour. Then, oh, 
what love, peace, and joy filled my soul!” 


CONSECRATION AND FAITH. Q7 


ii, 


A minister, calling at a house where the husband and 
father was just dead, “ found Mrs. Smith and her daugh- 
ters and two neighboring women, all quietly seated as 
though nothing unusual had occurred. There was no 
consternation, nor any excitement, such as usually exists 
in families when visited by such a stroke. All seemed 
calm as a summer evening. After a few moments con- 
versation we said, ‘Sister Smith, we understand you 
have met with a great affliction’  ‘ Yes; affliction it 
should be considered, I suppose. My husband is dead ; 
but the struggle is all over.’ ‘How is that? we asked. 
‘You recollect, said she, ‘I presented myself, with 
many others, some months ago, as a seeker of the bless- 
ing of perfect love.’ ‘Yes, we know you did, ‘ Well, 
you know I had a great struggle’ ‘Yes.’ ‘What the 
cause of the struggle was, I suppose you never knew? 
‘We never did.’ ‘Tt was this: I had been praying a 
long time for the blessing, I thought I had given up 
all. I went to the Lord again, and asked Him to show 
me what, if anything, was yet lacking on my part. My 
husband was down the Mississippi in the service of our 
country, and was ill. The question was pressed home 
to me—Should your husband die in the south, and you 
see him no more on earth, could you willingly give him 
up and say, “ The will of the Lord be done?” My heart 
arose in rebellion at once, I felt to say No; that will be 
so cruel. I said, Lord, I can suffer anything else; but 
give my husband to die away off there, I cannot. Then 
I would try to make myself believe that it was nothing 
but the temptation of Satan. But every time I asked 
for the blessing that question was asked me. Over this 

7 


98 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


I struggled for weeks. At length I triumphed through 
grace, and felt to say, Yes, Lord, take my husband, my 
daughter, myself, my all; but give me peace and purity 
within! Then I believed, and entered into rest. Oh, 
how sweet and abiding has been my peace ever since! 
My husband is gone; I mourn his loss here, but I feel 
that it is all right. The language of my heart is, “ The 
will of the Lord be done.” Deeply afflicted as I am, I 
was never so happy in God before in all my life.’ ” 


a 6 


“A lady, after seeking for some time the blessing of 
entire sanctification, thought she had obtained it; but 
desiring to be fully satisfied, she went again to the throne 
of heavenly grace. arnestly did she plead for the wit- 
ness that she was accepted and wholly sanctified. She 
had not pleaded long when God led her in a way she 
had not known. The question was presented to her as 
distinctly as if spoken by an audible voice—Should your 
child be taken away in death, could you say Amen; 
‘Not my will but Thine be done.’ 

“ Her affections clung to her first-born—a bright-eyed 
little boy. That boy was dearer to her than her life. 
The thought of parting with him in death was _heart- 
rending. She felt to say—Take anything else, Lord, 
but give up my child, I cannot. Over this she strug- 
gled for three long weeks. Every time she attempted 
to pray she met this question. Her desires for holiness 
grew stronger and stronger; but how to yield and give 
up her child she knew not. Finally, she felt the victory 
she must have or dic! She began to ery, Lord, help. 
Help, Lord, or I die! Then she gained victory over 


~~ —— a a | a ae 


CONSECRATION AND FAITH. o¢ 


self, and could say, Lord, take my child, take my all, if 
it please Thee, but give me full salvation. Then, said 
she, my load fell off; then I felt the blood of sprinkling 
applied, and that I was clean; then I obtained that peace 
which is like a river; and now I enjoy that ‘ perfect love 
which casteth out all fear,’ 

“Well, that child did not die; he is alive yet. The 
mother had loved the child more than she loved God. 
Her will was opposed to God’s will, in the event of the 
child’s death. When she could willingly give the child 
to God for time and for eternity, her consecration was 
complete. She has no less love for her child, and no 
Jess joy in him than she had before; but if he should be 
taken from her while she is thus fully given up to God, 
she will be able to say, ‘ The struggle is all over.’” 


IV. 


“In the course of a conversation with a lady of rich 
Christian experience, she asked if we thought it would 
be right for a Christian lady to marry an irreligious 
man. We replied that as a rule we should say it would 
not, yet circumstances might be such that she might be 
Justified in so doing. We told her we thought so weighty 
a matter should be made a subject of prayer, and if she 
married such a man she should be sure that it would be 
pleasing to God. She remarked that she did not know 
but some might do it; but if she should marry an un- 
godly man, she would lose her soul. 

“She then gave her experience in substance as follows: 
Several years before, her attention had been called to the 
subject of sanctification. She resolved to seek it. She 
was engaged to an irreligious young man. She had not 


100 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


been long seeking for the blessing, when, as she was 
earnestly praying, something seemed to say, ‘If you 
would be a sanctified Christian, you must give up that 
young man.’ Here she stumbled for two years and a 
half. Every time she prayed for the blessing, that 
thought was suggested. At this point she would always 
cease praying, and commence reasoning the case with 
Satan. She tried to make herself believe that that was 
not necessary ; that it was the temptation of the devil to 
destroy her peace. 

“At length she went to a camp meeting, fecling that 
she could not, and would not leave until she received 
the blessing. She could reach this point, but could go 
no farther. One afternoon she went into her room and 
wrestled till nearly night, but found no relief. She sat 
down and soliloquized thus: ‘I came to this meeting 
determined to obtain the blessing of sanctification. I 
felt that I could not, and would not leave without it. It 
is now evening; and we leave to-morrow morning ; and, 
oh, must I go away as I came? I cannot!’ A prayer 
meeting was in progress in a large tent on the opposite 
side of the ground, She determined to go there, hoping 
she might hear something that would afford her some 
relief. Arriving in front of the tent, she heard a man 
instructing those who were seeking perfect love. ‘That, 
said she, ‘is just what I wish to hear” As she listened 
to this man’s remarks, she was brought to see that the 
impression that she must give up that young man was 
made by the Spirit of God, rather than the temptation 
of Satan. She then said, ‘ Lord, take him, if that is 
what is required ; I willingly give him up; I will never 
marry him while the world stands!’ T hen she was 


a aes 


CONSECRATION AND FAITH. 101 


willing to give up all for Jesus, and then she was ena 
bled to lay hold of the blessing.” 


We must leave in the Lord’s hands the decision of 
the question, What outward profession or calling shall £ 
pursue? ‘To illustrate this point, I abridge one more 
instance from the work already referred to : 


V. 


“A young man came to a minister at eleven o’clock at 
night, and asked what he considered the evidence of a 
divine call to the ministry. After much conversation 
on the subject, he said, ‘ Three weeks ago I heard a soul- 
stirring sermon on the subject of sanctification. I con- 
cluded that the blessing was for me, and I would seek it 
with all my heart. I had not sought long, when, as I 
was earnestly praying for a clean heart, I was asked this 
question—Are you willing to devote all your time, 
talents and energies to the work of the Christian min- 
istry? I have decided upon another profession, and I 
feel I cannot preach.’ The minister answered, ‘That is 
just what we expected you would say. Now it is use- 
less for us to talk about the evidences of a call to the 
ministry. We do not say you will ever have to preach 
a sermon, but we do say that you will have to become 
willing to give up the legal profession and be willing to 
enter the ministry, or you can never receive the blessing 
you seek.’ 

“The young man saw the point, accepted the teaching, 
made the consecration, and rejoiced in full salvation 
through the ‘blood of the Lamb,’ After walking upon 
the highway of holiness for a few months, having the 


102 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


testimony all the time that he pleased God, he died in 
triumph, and passed away. He was a conscientious, 
devoted Christian. He was determined to serve God 
and get to Heaven. He had set his heart on being a 
lawyer. He had said in effect, I will live religion, and 
I will be a lawyer. And just there his will had to yield, 
that he might be wholly the Lord’s.” 


When the late President Finney, of America, was 
converted, having retired to a forest to pray alone and 
aloud, and then finding himself so suddenly and com- 
pletely relieved of the burden and guilt of his sins that 
he did not know what had happened to him, he said to 
himself as he was returning home—“If I am converted 
I shall preach the gospel.” He was a young lawyer, 
just getting into a successful practice and with brilliant 
prospects; but, like Paul, “immediately he conferred 
not with flesh and blood ;’ and when, a few days after 
his conversion, one of the deacons of the church in the 
village where he resided, said to him, “ Mr. Finney, my 
lawsuit comes off this morning at ten o’clock, and I hope 
you are prepared to attend to it;” his reply was: “I 
have been retained by the Lord Jesus Christ to plead 
His cause, and I cannot plead yours;” and he never 
entered the court-room again as a lawyer. 

It does not follow from this that every Christian law- 
yer is to do as President Finney did—abandon the law, 
and go into the ministry—but simply that when God 
calls us, we are to obey, and where God calls, we are to 
follow. He must have His own way in reference to our 
profession, or occupation, as He must have it in every- 
thing else. 


CONSECRATION AND FAITH, 103 


Every one who enters in solemn earnest upon the 
work of consecration, will probably find more or less 
difficulty in surrendering one thing after another; but 
will come at last to the one thing over which his strug- 
gle will have to be made, and which is the very hardest 
thing for him to give up. Here self is entrenched as 
in a stronghold, and when that point is surrendered, 
the whole citadel is surrendered. The thing most dif- 
ficult to yield, will be very different in different cases, 
on account of the great variety of tastes, preferences, 
temperaments, and circumstances which exist among 
Christian people. 

Sometimes the whole contest is over some compara- 
tively trivial thing; and yet it is not trivial, if we hold 
on to it in antagonism with God’s will. It may be only 
some ornament, or an article of dress which is not quite 
in accordance with Christian simplicity. It may be 
some self-indulgent habit—indolence, reverie, novel- 
reading, or the improper gratification of some appetite, 
natural or acquired. Oftener, however, it is some duty 
to be done, or some cross to be borne, from which the 
individual shrinks. It may be to speak in public for 
the Lord; it may be to go as a missionary to some dis- 
tant and undesirable place; it may be to be laid aside 
and not employed at all—prostrated by lingering dis- 
ease, or rendered wholly incapable of active service by 
the pressure of one’s surroundings. 

And on these occasions Satan seldom fails to be pre- 
sent, using all his arts to magnify the difficulties of 
entire surrender, or to induce you, if possible, to post- 
pone the desired step to a more convenient season. He 
may even suggest obstacles which seem well nigh in- 


104 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


superable, and persuade you that they are likely, or cer- 
tain to occur, 

A distinguished American evangelist, when trying to 
surrender himself to the Lord, was constantly harassed 
by the thought that, if he did so, he would have to exe) 
as a missionary to Africa—a thing which was peculiarly 
repulsive to him, At length he yielded, and said— 
“Yes, Africa or anywhere else; the Lord’s will be 
done.” Since then he has never had the slightest inti- 
mation that it was his duty to go to Africa; while the 
Lord has given him a very rich harvest-field, and thou- 
sands of seals to his ministry, in his own Jand. 

Now, beloved reader, if the Lord, by His Holy 
Spirit, is showing you your idols; if you have become 
conscious of your obligation to give up all to the Lord, 
and what it is that is hardest to give up; then you 
know where your battle is to be fought, and your victory 
won. And do not fail to remember that, in this war- 
fare, every victory is by surrender. Yicld up all to the 
Captain of Salvation, and you shall be more than con- 
queror through Him that loved you. 

Ts any one thinking, while perusing this chapter, that 
the view of consecration thus far presented, is a discour- 
aging one?—that surrender to the Lord is represented as 
so very hard a thing to do, that many will shrink from 
making the attempt? I freely admit that such a conse- 
cration as I have been describing is no child’s play. It 
does sometimes involve a fearful struggle. Self-will is 
strongly entrenched in the heart; and, of the man who, 
by the power of the Holy Ghost persistently deter- 
mines on its expulsion, it may often be said, as in the 
case of one of old—“ The spirit rent him sore”? IT 


CONSECRATION AND FAITH, 105 


would not make the way easier or harder than the Bible 
makes it. 

Consecration does mean actual business. It means 
cutting off the right hand and plucking out the right 
eye; it means crucifixion ; it means death. And Jesus 
Himself tells us this in one of the beautiful Gospel par- 
adoxes—“ He that saveth his life shall lose it, and he 
that loseth his life, for my sake, shall save it.” 


“T lose myself that I may save myself,” 


Consecration, therefore, implies that the life of self 
and the life of sin, are to be laid upon the altar of sac- 
rifice ; not to be kept alive but to die. And let us urge 
upon every one who may read these pages, the import- 
ance of surrendering at once. Die suddenly! As the 
soldier who is shot dead in battle, experiences much less 
suffering than one who is only severely wounded, and 
who may survive through weeks, or months, or many 
years of physical pain; so, the soul that decides at once 
for full salvation, that surrenders now, that shrinks not 
from the sacrifice—even unto death—of its own self-will, 
knows much less of the struggle, and the conflict, and 
the torture, and far more of the rich joy and the abound- 
ing life, than one that hesitates ; that lingers ; that clings 
tenaciously and persistently to some darling idol, or dar- 
ling sin; that withholds the severing-knife from some of 
the tendrils of the old nature; that refuses to die, May 
the Lord make a short work in our gouls, May we 
yield at once, and entirely. May the contest be sharp, 
short, and decisive—the victory speedy and complete. 

Thus far, I have been presenting to my reader the 
harder and sterner aspect of the subject before us; but 


106 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


I must not omit to state that there is another aspect, and 
that consecration is to the believer not only a duty, but 
the highest possible privilege. It brings with it a rest 
so sweet, a joy so full, a peace so abiding, that all we 
have to surrender is as nothing to what we receive. A 
boy may cling very tenaciously to the toys he is holding 
in his hands, but he will readily relinquish them if you 
offer to fill his hands-with gold sovereigns. Consecra- 
tion is exchanging ourselves for Christ, and. making in- 
finite gain by the transaction. 

The very best thing that can happen to any of us is 
that the sweet adorable will of God should be accom- 
plished in us, and by us, and through us, and concern- 
ing us. He has the programme of my best posssible 
future,” says one who has committed all into His 
hands. ‘ What things were gain to me, those I counted 
loss for Christ,” says the Apostle, who knew, if any man 
ever knew, what it is to be wholly the Lord’s. 

“God’s promises,” as has been well remarked by an- 
other, “are always greater than His commands.” The 
latter involve surrender, the former involve privilege. 
Jesus walks by the sea of Galilee and finds certain fisher- 
men engaged about their calling. He first says, “ Fol- 
low me. Here was surrender. They must leave fami- 
lies, business, means of living, all, that they might 
obey His command. But then He added, “And I will 
make you fishers of men.” Ah, here was the glorious 
privilege! It is a vastly nobler thing to catch men than 
to catch fish. How unspeakable was the gain they made 
by the simple transaction of forsaking all and following 
Him. And so it will be with all who do likewise. 
And thus if consecration is, in one point of view, like 


CONSECRATION AND FAITH. 107 


dying, it is, in another, wondrously like marrying. It 
is entering into everlasting covenant relations with the 
7 Heavenly Bridegroom, Even the earthly bride does not 
become united to a husband without making some sacri- 
fices. She becomes dead to her kindred and to her 
father’s house, in thatif her husband’s interests require, she 
must leave kindred, and father’s house to go with him, 
She becomes dead even to her own name, and adopts the 
name of her husband. Many associations must be sur- 
rendered, many happy scenesabandoned , many joyous pur- 
suits relinquished, that she may becomea wife. Yet wed- 
dings are not usually regarded as very sad occasions. The 
bride does not usually go to the altar with a long face and 
a sorrowful heart Some natural tears she sheds at the 
sundering of old ties, but she wipes them soon, and goes 
joyously, trustingly, unhesitatingly with the husband of 
her choice, and this because she loves him better than all. 

And may we not count it a light thing, and even 
gladly surrender all else that we may enjoy the union, 
the indwelling, the companionship, the “ everlasting 
love” of Him who condescends to call the Church His 
bride? “JZ sat down under His shadow with great de- 
light, and His fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought 
me also to His banqueting house, and His banner over me 
was love.” 

But in order to enter into the “ fulness of the blessing 
of the Gospel of Christ,” or to obtain as a rich gift from 
God a sanctified heart, it is necessary that the act of con- 
secration be followed also by an act of faith We must 
not only make the perfect surrender that has already 
been described. We must also believe that the surrender 
is accepted. ‘The faith here alluded to is not a different 


108 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


kind of faith from that previously spoken of at length 
in the chapter on Regeneration, but the same faith ap- 
plied to a different object. It is believing, not for the 
pardon of past sin, but for purity of heart. It is taking 
Jesus as a Saviour, not only from sins committed, but 
from heart-sin. 

“And this is the confidence we have in Him,” says 
the Apostle, “that if we ask anything according to His 
will, He heareth us; and if we know that He heareth 
us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the peti- 
tions we desired of Him.” The teaching of such pas- 
sages is this: In consecrating ourselves to God, and 
praying for those things which are in accordance with 
the will of God—and certainly sanctification, a clean 
heart, or Christian perfection, is one of the things which 
are according to His will—we may be confident, sure, 
that it will be given to us, nay, that it is now given to 
us if we have full faith in God’s promise. While the 
result will not take place without our believing (because 
that is the condition on which it is offered), yet its cer- 
tainty depends not on the fact of our believing, but on the 
veracity of Him that cannot lie. It is, then, the ever- 
lasting truth of God that forms the ground-work of our 
faith. Could it have a stronger basis to rest upon? Is 
there anything else so worthy of belief as the word of 
Him who is the Truth? 

If then, with entire and unreserved submission, we 
lay ourselves and our all upon the altar of Christ, we are 
next simply to believe that the altar sanctifieth the gift. 
Consecrating everything we have and are to God, we ask 
‘Him to ercate within us a clean heart, and we must be- 
lieve definitely for the thing we ask, and not for some- 


CONSECRATION AND FAITH. 109 


thing else. If we ask for bread will our Father give us 
astone? If we ask Him for a pure heart will He send 
us away with something else? “ What things soever ye 
desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye 
shall have them.” 

And the same principles which are applicable to the 
seeking and finding of entire sanctification, are applica- 
ble to the seeking and finding of the particular graces 
that accompany it. These, also, are to be asked for in a 
spirit of entire consecration on the one hand, and of per- 
fect trust on the other. It may indeed be said, in a 
general way, that whoever possesses a holy heart will also 
possess the subordinate Christian graces that constitute 
holiness. In whomsoever the Holy Spirit dwells—and 
with Him the Father and the Son—He will, necessarily, 
bring forth in that individual the “ fruits of the Spirit.” 
If any one is earnestly seeking for more humility, more 
meeckness, more patience, more wisdom, the infallible 
direction to such an one is—“ Get the Bridegroom, and 
you will get Eis possessions.” 

But, as there is an appropriate occasion for the exer- 
cise of each grace, if there should be, at any time, a 
special need of patience, or of gratitude, or of gentle- 
ness, or of humility, ask for it, submissively and believ- 
ingly, in entire surrender and childlike trust, and, “accord 
ing to thy faith it shall be unto thee’ We should 
always make our approaches to the throne of grace in a 
spirit (1) of entire submissiveness—offering up petitions, 
but never demands—and (2) with an unfaltering faith 
that God is willing to do, and that, if the present is in 
His view the appropriate time, He does now do that 
which He has promised, and which we desire. 


110 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


REMARKS. 
I. 


Tn consecration we give all; by faith we take all. 


IT. 


Consecration is the pre-requisite of entire sanctifica- 
tion ; as repentance is the pre-requisite of justification, 


Tit. 


Consecration is the voluntary act of a moral agent, 
having the power of choice. Sanctification is an act of 
God’s grace. 

1A, 

The act of consecration will not be performed without 
Divine aid; but that aid will not be withheld from any 
one who chooses and wills to consecrate himself. 


Vv. 


Consecration implies sinking entirely into the will of 
God. In submissiveness to Him, we must be willing to 
abandon every known sin, to do every known duty, to 
give up every idol, to bear every cross, to endure every 
affliction. 

aveLe 


Consecration means an entire willingness on our part 
to be, to do, and to suffer all that God wills. 


VIl. 


Consecration is death to self-life and self-will. 


‘ ee 


CONSECRATION AND FAITH. Ut 


VIET. 


Consecration is the condition of entire and permanent 
soul-union with Jesus. 


IX. 


Consecration is the highest privilege, and the richest 
Joy ; because, the best possible thing that can happen to 
us is, that God’s adorable will concerning us may be 
done. 


xX. 


The act of consecration is to be followed by definite 
prayer for a clean heart; and then the act of faith, by 
which we receive what we ask for, and not something 
else. 


AT; 


“Take my life—and let it be 
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee. 
Take my hands, and let them move 
At the impulse of Thy love. 
Take my feet, and let them be 
Swift and beautiful for Thee. 
Take my voice, and let me sing 
Always, only, for my king. 
Take my lips, and let them be 
Filled with messages from Thee. 
Take my silver and my gold; 
Not a mite would I withhold. 
Take my moments, and my days, 
Let them flow in ceaseless praise. 
Take my intellect, and use 
Every power as Thou shalt choose. 
Take my will, and make it Thine; 
It shall ke no longer mine. 


112 HE OFFICES OF THH HOLY SPIRIT. 
Take my heart, it is thine own; ~ 
Tt shall be Thy royal throne. 
Take my love, my Lord, f pour 
At Thy feet its treasured store. 
Take myself, and let me be 
Ever, only, ALL for Thee.” 


CHAPTER VII. 


WALKING IN THE SPIRIT. 


F’ not an indispensable, it is certainly not an unim- 
portant thing, that a child of God should be assured 
as to any work of grace that has been wrought in the 
soul, The sinner who is seeking Christ, in the pardon 
of sin, feels that if ever he is converted, he wants to 
know it; and the believer who is seeking a clean heart, 
feels that if ever he is sanctified, he wants to know it, 
And we believe it is not our Heavenly Father’s purpose 
that His children should be in doubt, whether or not 
they are His children; nor yet in doubt whether, after 
fulfilling the conditions upon which He offers them 
special gifts, they do, or do not receive those eitts. “In 
quietness and confidence shall be your strength ;” but, 
how can there be quietness and confidence, when our 
spirits are tossed with doubts and fears, and questionings 
as to our acceptance with God, and true relation to Him? 
“The joy of the Lord is your strength ;” but how can 
there be joy without the settled assurance that we belong 
to God, and that He careth for us? 

If then, any of my readers have come to the conclu- 
sion that holiness is a duty and a privilege of the Chris- 
tian believer—if they have, to the best of their ability, 
and in reliance upon Divine assistance, surrendered all 
to God, and asking, according to His will, that He will 
create in them a clean heart, and humbly believing that 
He is faithful to all His promises, are now trusting Him 

8 113 


114 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


for the fulfilment of their longing desires—these, surely, 
if no others, will be interested in the question: Low am 
T to know when God has sanctified me wholly? 

The first evidence that He has so done, is derived 
from the consciousness on the part of the individual, that 
he has really surrendered all to Christ. But how is one 
to know that he has really surrendered all? If he has 
gone through the struggle that I have elsewhere de- 
scribed; if he has come to the one thing which is hardest 
to give up—be it a besetting sin, or self-indulgent habit, 
or an object of pride, or some idol of the affections, or 
some duty to be done, or some suffering to be borne— 
whatever it be, he knows by his own inner consciousness 
that he has laid it upon the altar, or that he has not. If 
his heart condemn him not in this matter ; if it bear wit- 
ness that he is not withholding any known thing from 
God, then he may trust Him wholly, also, for what is un- 
known; surrendering, first, all he does know, and then 
all that he does not know. And this is good evidence, as 
far as it goes, that God has given him a clean heart; for 
one of the marks or characteristics of such a heart is, that 
it loves—above all things—to do, and to suffer God’s will. 

The second evidence 1s aiso derived from conscious- 
ness, and is the witness of our innermost heart that we 
love God better than any created object. Here, again, 
many will inquire—How am I to know that I love God 
better than all else? Ask the faithful, devoted wife, 
how she knows that she loves her husband better than 
any other person. She may not be able to answer philo- 
sophically, but her own consciousness will not leave her 
a moment in doubt as to the fact. And does not the 
consecrated believer fecl that his love for his Saviour 


—— a eee eee 


WALKING IN THE SPIRIT. thige 


transcends all other love in his heart; that, just as he 
would prefer that every star should be blotted from the 
heavens, rather than that the great orb of day should 
cease to shine; so he would rather give up all subordi- 
nate objects—however beautiful and attractive they may 
be—than to lose his interest in Christ? Does not his 
own heart tell him that he would esteem all other lone- 
liness, and bereavement, and sorrow, a light thing in 
comparison with the hopeless orphanage that would be 
his portion, if he could look up to the sky above him, 
and down upon the earth beneath him , and upon animate 
and inanimate nature all around him, and be forced to 
say—in the blankness of dark despair—I have no 
Heavenly Father!’ He would be willing, if need be, 
that every subordinate light should be darkened, if only 
the beams of the Sun of Righteousness may continue to 
illumine his spiritual sky. . 

But whilst the testimony of our inner consciousness, 
that all is surrendered to God, and that we love Him 
supremely, is important, and entitled to great weight in 
deciding the question—Am I, or am I nota sanctified 
Christian? yet we are not to rest satisfied in so mo- 
mentous a matter without having, in addition, the witness 
of the Spirit. We have already spoken of the witness 
of the Spirit to our adoption; but the Apostle tells us 
also—“ Hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the 
Spirit which He hath given us;” and again, “If we 
love one another, God dwelleth in us, and Eis love is per- 
fected in us.” “Hereby know we that we dwell in 
Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His 
Spirit.” 

Now, we have stated in another place that, to have 


116 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


God’s love perfected in us—that is, to obtain perfect 
love—is the same thing as sanctification ; and the Scrip- 
tures just quoted tell us that we are to know that we 
have this perfect love, or this entire sanctification, or 
this adiding and in-dwelling of Christ, by the Spirit 
which He hath given us. 

And, if it be difficult to define in what the witness of 
the Spirit consists, I think we may, nevertheless, be able 
to know under what circumstances, and on what condi- 
tions we may expect to receive it; yes, and even to be 
satisfied that we have received it. Suppose that an in- 
dividual has been earnestly seeking a clean heart. So 
far as his consciousness goes, he has laid all upon the 
altar of consecration. So far as he knows, also, he has 
given God the supreme place in his heart, and allows 
Him to reign without a rival in his affections—z. e, he 
loves God better than anything else; but, wishing by no 
means to be deceived, he goes to the Lord in prayer, ear- 
nestly besceching Him to give him the witness of the 
Spirit to his conscious cleansing. 

Under these circumstances, I believe we shall not be 
disappointed in expecting that our compassionate Heay- 
enly Father will do one of two things. He will either 
by His Spirit so search the heart of the person concerned, 
as to show him that there is still something wanting in 
his consecration—something in which he prefers his own 
will to God’s will—or else He will give him a convic- 
tion that there is nothing separating his soul from Him, 
and fill him with peace, and even, mayhap, with joy in 
believing. If He shows him nothing lacking in his con- 
secration, he may conclude there is nothing. If He fills 
him with quiet rest, and peace, and joy, that is the wit- 


————— 


ee 


WALKING IN THE SPIRIT. Akg 


ness of the Spirit. Let him accept it as such, and joy- 
fully believe that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth 
him now from all sin. Glory be to Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost. 

\nd if these be the evidences to ourselves that we 
have received the clean heart, what evidences will con- 
vince others of the same fact? An unbelieving world 
and a gain-saying church will not be convinced by any 
evidence. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself was not re- 
garded as a holy man by eyen the religious teachers of 
the day. Those who reject the doctrine of holiness, who 
do not believe that holiness is required of or privileged 
to the believer in this state of being, will not be con- 
vinced by any evidence, that they actually see holy men 
and women around them. Mistaking infirmities and 
weaknesses for sins, looking at the outward conduct, and 
not seeing it perfect according to their own standard, 
they will find plenty of failures and defects, plenty of 
things to find fault with, even in the lives of those 
whose hearts may be perfect in love. The following 
quotation from Dr. Daniel Steele, of America, is in 
point, viz. :— 

“There are old residents of this country who are by 
no means favorites with me, and I cut their acquaintance 
as much as possible, such as ignorance, forgetfulness, mis- 
judgment, error, inadvertence, failure, and a large family 
by the name of infirmity. In fact, I have repeatedly 
cast my vote for their exclusion, but they insist that they 
have a right to remain, since no statute lies against them. 
They say that they are grossly wronged when confounded 
with an odious foreigner called sin, who slightly resem- 
bles them in external appearance, but is wholly different 


/ 


118 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


in moral character. I must confess that a close obser- 
vation, extended through many years, demonstrates the 
justice of this plea. Hence I live in peace with these 
old citizens, but do not delight in their society.” 

But the candid inquirer and earnest seeker after holi- 
ness will see in the lives of those who are really sanctified 


something that will constrain him to confess, ‘These ° 


men, or these women, have something in their religious 
experience which I do not possess. And all have a 
right to expect from those who claim this great salvation 
such fruits of the Spirit, such holiness of life and con- 
versation, such righteousness, and goodness, and truth, 
as may be in consonance with the good profession which 
they witness. God forbid that any sanctified believer 
should, by impatience, or jealousy, or malice, or ill-tem- 
per, or impurity, or covetousness, bring reproach upon 
the cause of holiness, which is indeed another name for 
the cause of Christ. 

“And Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone” 
with the reflected radiance which it had received when 
he was in the presence of Jehovah. An influence con- 
scious or unconscious, will emanate from the acts and 
words and countenances of saintly men and women, 
which will impress the hearts of others, and draw them 
to seek for themselves the grace of holiness. They have 
the wine which maketh glad the heart, and the oil which 
maketh the face to shine, though like Moses they wist 
not of it. 

But many persons wnen brought face to face with the 
fact that such an experience as entire sanctification is the 
privilege of the believer, through faith in Christ, hesi- 
tate to accept it definitely for fear they shall not retain 


—————— 


a ie 


WALKING IN THE SPIRIT. 119 


it. They might hope to have it and enjoy it for a mo- 
ment or a day, but it is too great a stretch of faith for 
them to believe that such a blessing can by any means 
be permanent. They are ready to ask, Can it be possible 
that holiness may be retained as a continuous experi- 
ence? or, How can it be retained ? 

In the thirty-fifth chapter of Isaiah we have a glo- 
rious description of the blessings of the Gospel dispensa- 
tion; and amongst other beautiful things we read, “And 
an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be 
called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over 
wt; but it shall be for those: the waytaring men, though 
fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor 
any ravenous beast shall go up thereon; it shall not be 
found there: but the redeemed shall walk there.” 

I have spoken so much of holiness as a state that 
some of my readers may have imagined that I am de- 
scribing a kind of happy condition, which when you 
have attained, you haye nothing to do but to sit down 
quietly, fold your hands, and wait for the messenger 
which is to summon you to Heaven. But holiness is not 
only a state but a way ; and not only a way, but a high- 
way, wherein the “redeemed” are to walk; and walking 
on it they shall be seen. God designs that through the 
great salvation in Christ Jesus, His children should both 
be “redeemed out of the hands of their enemies,” and 
should serve Him without fear in holiness and riehteous- 
ness before Him all the days of their lives. 

And here, as elsewhere in the Gospel plan, Christ is 
Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning 
and the end. By Him we get upon the highway of holi- 
ness; for “Tam the door.” By Him we walk upon the 


120 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


highway of holiness; for “I am the way.” So far as 
the human side is concerned, by a definite act of conse- 
cration and faith we enter upon the highway of holiness; 
and then, by abiding in Christ, we walk upon that high- 
way. Without Christ we cannot get on to the way, and 
without Him we cannot take a single step after we are 
on it. Again we must quote George Fox, “ We are 
nothing; Christ is all.” 

It was but a single step, the work of a moment, a 
voluntary definite act of my own, by which I went on 
board the steamer at New York, purposing to come to 
England. Asking God’s protection and care, I surren- 
dered myself to the keeping of the steamer and her 
officers. I might have distrusted the boat or her com- 
mander, and declined to go on board. Then I should 
not have reached my destination. I might have jumped 
overboard after the voyage had begun. That would 
have been suicide. I went on board, and remained on 
board ; that was my part. The steamer, under the com- 
mand of her intelligent captain, brought me to my de- 
sired haven. I surrendered myself and luggage to her 
keeping. She did the rest. I did not go on board of 
her more and more, nor surrender to her more and 
more, but I simply gave myself up to her, and remained 
so given up, and she brought me more and more toward 
the British coast until I arrived there. 

Tn like manner, by a definite act of surrender and trust, 
the soul of the believer is brought into union with Christ; 
and then if he abides in that union, he is brought along, 
burdens and all, toward the heavenly shore. He may 
fail, through unbelief, to experience the consummation 
of that union, and then, though redeemed, he will not 


WALKING IN THE SPIRIT. {24 


walk in the highway of holiness, or only get on to it in 
the hour of death. After the union has taken place he 
still has the suicidal power of sundering it. But if he 
surrenders and abides, Jesus does the rest. He does not 
consecrate himself more and more, nor experience sancti- 
fication more and more, but he definitely gives up all to 
Christ; and He causes him to increase more and more, 
in knowledge and in grace, makes him more and more 
Jike Himself, adorns him more and more with all the 
graces of the Spirit, enables him to adorn the doctrine of 
Christ his Saviour more and more in all things, and 
brings him more and more toward his heavenly rest. 
He has a pure heart all the time, but the graces of holiness 
are Increasingly developed, and the fruits of the Spirit 
brought forth more and more abundantly in his daily 
life. He is sanctified, holy, perfect in the Scriptural 
sense of those terms; but he grows in sanctification, he 
increases in holiness, he ripens in perfection. 

Purity is one thing, maturity is quite another; the 
first is perfection in natwre—the second is perfection in 
degree. 

Sanctification is soul-health. <A healthy child needs 
but to be properly fed and cared for in order to grow 
rapidly and symmetrically, and develop into a strong 
man. But if the child has some constitutional disease, 
such as scrofula, mal-nutrition, or softening of the bones, 
his growth will be irregular, distorted, dwarfish, and 
may result in permanent deformity. But give him a 
medicine which shall permeate all his tissues, removing 
from them every trace of disease, and restoring him to 
health ; then let him drink milk, and he will grow just 
as a child that was born healthy will grow. 


122 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


Now, spiritually, we are all born with a constitutional 
disease—the malady of in-dwelling sin. And, as before 
observed, the Church of England is quite right in saying 
that “this infection of nature continues even in those 
who have been regenerated.” And so Jong as it does thus 
continue—whilst there may be growth, yet it is not a 
healthy and vigorous growth, but tardy and irregular, 
the result being in too many instances, stunted, dwarfish, 
one-sided Christians. If, however, by the baptism with 
the Holy Ghost in connection with the cleansing blood 
of Jesus, this infection is removed, and spiritual health 
thus given to the believer, he is now in a condition to 
partake of the sincere milk of the word, and to grow 
thereby. He grows from strength to strength. Having 
clean hands and a pure heart, he grows stronger and 
stronger, ascends into the hill of the Lord, and stands in 
His holy place. “ He shall bring forth fruit in old age, 
he shall be fat and flourishing.” 

In the Canticles we read, ‘‘ 1 went down to the garden 
of nuts to sce the fruits of the valley, and to see whether 
the vines flourished, and the pomegranates budded.” 
The pomegranates are perfect in their budding, but not 
yet prepared to bring forth fruit like the vines. The 
vines are perfect and bringing fruit in their season, but 
not the rich ripe golden fruit of the garden of nuts.. So 
in the Church of Christ there may be sanctified be- 
lievers who are yet in the infancy of their Christian life 
—pure in heart, but having little knowledge or strength. 
Christ will “gently lead” these young and tender lambs 
of His flock. He has many things to say unto them, 
but they cannot bear them now. “Jf men should over- 
drive them one day, all the flock will die.” 


WALKING IN THE SPIRIT, 12S 


Then there are those who are further advanced in 
wisdom and strength—living branches of the living vine 
—bringing forth fruit to the praise of the Husbandman, 
strong men and women in Christ Jesus. And finally, 
there are some amongst every sect and denomination of 
Christians, who after much chastening, which is child- 
discipline, after many temptations and trials of faith, 
after, it may be, many afflictions, and sorrows, and 
disappointments, are enabled to bring forth the sweet 
lovely autumnal fruits of a ripened Christian character. 

How absurd it would be to maintain that because a 
child has perfect health, it may not grow larger-or 
stronger. Not less preposterous is it to argue, that be- 
cause a heart is made holy, there is no longer room for a 
growth “in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ.” Sound health, whether of body or 
soul, is the condition of rapid and successful growth. 

Let us now return to the question, How shall the 
blessing of entire sanctification be retained? And the 
answer is ready: It is to be retained precisely as it was 
obtained. There is one text of Scripture that meets the 
case exactly. It is this: ‘As ye have received Christ 
Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.” Let me inquire 
of my readers, those who have accepted Christ as their 
sanctification: How did you thus receive Him? 

You received Him, first, in a belief that holiness is for 
the Christian a privilege andaduty. You found it stated 
everywhere in the pages of the Bible that God requires 
His children to be holy, and that He makes it possible 
for them to be holy. In that same belief you must con- 
tinue, if you would retain a holy heart. The doctrine 
of holiness has not yet found acceptance with a large 


124 THE OFFICES OF THE IIOLY SPIRIT. 


portion of the visible Church. You will find many ex- 
cellent and pious Christian people who reject it. And 
you are to remain fixed in the belief, continuing to 
search the Scriptures and to bow to their authority, 
whatever even wise and good men may say in opposi- 
tion. If you begin to doubt the truth of the doctrine, 
you will soon doubt also your own experience, lose the 
evidence of your sanctification, and thus you may lose 
the grace itself. Walk on as you began to walk, in a 
firm conviction of the truth and scripturalness of the doc- 
trine and experience of holiness. 

And here, perhaps, I may be pardoned for one word 
of tender admonition to those disciples, and especially 
those ministers of Christ who reject the doctrine of holi- 
ness, as it has been taught in these pages. Surely no 
Christian will venture with the open Bible before him to 
say, [am opposed to holiness; and yet many are practi- 
cally opposing it by suggesting theological and philologi- 
cal difficulties, calculated rather to bewilder than to en- 
lighten the sincere inquirer and the humble seeker; for 
by plying with hard questions those who have surren- 
dered all to Christ, and are trusting Him for a clean 
heart, they may engender doubts in their minds, and 
even overturn their faith. Perfect love, like every other 
gospel blessing, is to be received in the spirit of a little 
child, and the most wise and learned amongst us may 
well take heed how they offend or cause to stumble any 
of the little ones who believe in Christ as their sanctifi- 
cation. 

You received Him, secondly, in an earnest desire for 
aclean heart. You longed for it, you panted for it, you 
groaned after it. Let those longing desires, that earnest 


WALKING IN THE SPIRIT. 125 


hungering and thirsting, which are the condition and 
earnest of being filled, continue. Still pray earnestly 
and seck earnestly for the mind that would rather give 
up life itself than commit known sin. Ask that the 
vessel may be enlarged, so as to contain more of God’s 
infinite love. It is one of the gospel paradoxes, that the 
heart -made perfect in love, is always satisfied and 
always wanting more. 


“Tnsatiate to the spring I fly, 
I drink, but still am ever dry.” 


You received Him, thirdly, in entire consecration—an 
absolute unconditional surrender to His will. In that 
same consecration or surrender you must walk in Him. 
When you yield up yourselves and your all to the Lord, 
it is not that any part of the sacrifice may be taken back 
again. You place all on the altar to-day, not that it may 
be taken off again to-morrow, but that it may be kept on 
the altar forever. If at any time, or in anything, you 
feel your will rising in opposition to God’s will or provi- 
dence, check such a rising at once. “ Thy will be done;” 
let that be the constant attitude of the mind, and the 
frequent utterance of the lips. 

If you voluntarily give place to any suggestion of 
Satan, if you cherish a single rebellious thought against 
God, you begin to lose the witness of the Spirit—the 
crowning evidence of your sanctification ; you begin to 
lose your faith, you will be quickly and easily tempted 
to disobey, and are too likely to fall into actual back- 
sliding. As you get on to the highway of holiness only 
by entire consecration, you can walk on it only by a con- 
stant continuance of the same, 


126 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


It is not that the act of consecration has to be made 
over and over again; but that we are to regard it as of 
unceasing and binding obligation 
gladsome privilege as well 


and of unending and 
ul our lives. It is but the 
work of a moment to unite a man and woman in the 
covenant of marriage, but in the force of that vow they 
walk together until death separates them. If there are 
moments of estrangement followed by reconciliation, 


they do not find it necessary to have the marriage cere- 
mony again performed, but recognizing the fact that the 
obligations assumed on the wedding-day have never 
ceased for a moment, they forgive each other their mu- 
tual lapses, and never regard themselves as anything 
else but husband and wife. In the covenant relations 
entered into with our Heavenly Father at consecration, we 
assume like obligations, If any lapses occur, they are 
all on our side. Let us at once confess them, and seek 
forgiveness, and never allow ourselves to imagine that 
our vows have ceased to be binding, or that all is lost 
because by some fault of our own, a temporary cloud has 
come between us and the face of our Beloved. Sink into 
self-nothingness and self-abnegation, and continually say, 
“ Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” As ye have received 
Christ Jesus the Lord in entire surrender, so walk ye in 
Tim, 

And let no one hesitate thus to surrender himself en- 
tirely, for fear that things too hard for him to bear will 
be required in the future. Does our Heavenly Father 
wish us to consecrate ourselves to Him, in order that He 
may have, and use, the opportunity of making our way 
peculiarly hard and difficult? Supposing a child should 
determine to yield its own will to that of its parents im 


WALKING IN THE SPIRIT. 137 


all things—to love them, to obey them, to strive in every 
particular to please them, and to submit uncomplainingly 
to their wishes, would the parents for that reason, inflict 
more suffering and sorrow upon it, and make its path of 
life exceptionally rough and disagreeable? The idea is 
preposterous! Would they not on the contrary shield 
such a child with all possible care from every needless 
suffering, grant it every indulgence at all compatible 
with its best welfare, and to the extent of their ability, 
make its life a happy one? And is our Heavenly 
Father less loying and kind than an earthly parent 
would be? Dare any one so dishonor His infinite love, 
as to imagine that because any child of His shall conse- 
erate himself to Him, He wil therefore inflict upon him 
sufferings peculiarly and needlessly severe? Oh, be- 
loved, let us trust God entirely, and put our whole case 
in His hands, being fully assured that in all things He 
will care for us, with more than a mother’s tenderness 
and more than a father’s love. 

You received Christ Jesus the Lord, fourthly, in ap- 
propriating faith—i. ¢., a faith that applied the promises 
of God to yourself at the present moment; and so you 
must walkin Him, “The Comforter for me now,” wrote 
Daniel Steele, and taking the promises, determined to 
believe. It was after several days of trial, during which 
he held on to this simple assertion by faith only, that 
the witness of the Spirit—the evidence made manifest to 
his consciousness that the blood of Jesus cleansed him 
then from all sin—was poured into his soul with over- 
whelming fulness and joy. Whatever else fails, let us 
keep our faith in active exercise. Truly the Christian, 
and not Iess than others the sanctified Christian, must 


128 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


walk by faith. Believe that God is giving you the Holy 
Spirit, believe that He is sprinkling clean water upon 
you, believe that He gives you now a clean heart, be- 
lieve that He is working in you to will and to do of His 
good pleasure. All things are possible to him that be- 
lieveth.” 

It happens in the experience of at least the greater 
number of believers, that the spiritual sky is sometimes 
darkened by clouds, I do not state this as a matter of 
necessity, but as a matter of fact. These clouds may arise 
from our own physical or mental condition, from our 
surroundings, or from the temptations of Satan. Possi- 
bly they are entirely our own fault, and might be avoided 
altogether by watchfulness and prayer; possibly they 
are permitted by our Heavenly Father for our chasten- 
ing and strengthening. The Holy Spirit is an abiding 
guest in the heart of a sanctified Christian, but He is not 
always present to his consciousness. 

In these times of darkness and doubt, of tossing and 
tempest, the soul needs to be firmly anchored in Christ, 
by a fixed and determined faith. Let it be the unalter- 
able resolve of the tried and afflicted one, “Though He 
slay me yet will I trust in Him.” 

As when for days we are unable to behold the face of 
the natural sun, through the looming clouds, yet have 
no doubt that he is still shining, though we cannot see 
him, so in times of spiritual darkness, let us believe and 
have peace in believing, that the Sun of Righteousness 
shall again arise with healing in His wings, and that we 
shall again look upon the face of our Beloved One, and 
hear the voice of His mouth. 

Thus the retention of a clean heart, and the walking 


WALKING IN THE SPIRIT. 129 


upon the highway of holiness, are found to be a matter 
of constant surrender and constant trust. If it depended 
on ourselves, however, vain would be all our efforts 
either to obtain, or retain, the wondrous blessing. The 
question is not what we are able to do, but what Christ 
is able to do, I would specially remind my readers of 
the following, viz: “Able to save to the uttermost all 
them that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth 
to make intercession for them.” “ Able to keep you from 
falling,” “ Able to succor them that are tempted.” 

When Paul prays for the Thessalonians that they may 
be sanctified wholly, he also prays that their whole spirit, 
and soul, and body, may be preserved blameless unto the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. First made blame- 
less and then kept so; and he adds, “ Faithful is He that 
ealleth you, Who also will do it.” 

In the fifty-sixth Psalm David exclaims, “Thou hast 
delivered my soul from death”—words which in the 
gospel day would be a good profession of conversion, 
but he adds, “ Wilt not Thou deliver my- feet from fall- 
ing, that I may walk before God in the light of the 
living?” and this surely should be the heartfelt desire 
of every child of God, 7. e., that his feet should be kept 
from falling. In the hundred-and-sixteenth Psalm we 
find David acknowledging that this prayer had been an- 
swered—yes, and more than answered—“ Thou hast de- 
livered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and 
my feet from falling. I will walk before God in the land 
of the living.” 

Faith is to the spiritual life what breathing is to the 
physical life. I take the oxygen of the air into my lungs 
this moment ; it purifies my blood which goes coursing 


130 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


through the tissues of my body, giving life and nutri- 
ment to every part; but when another moment comes, I 
must take another breath, another moment, another 
breath, and so on. My life is made up of successive 
moments, and kept up by successive acts of breathing; 
so that, when I cease breathing, I cease living. In like 
manner, I am trusting in Christ this moment, and He 
keeps me. ‘ His*blood cleanseth me from all sin.” 
Another moment comes, and I trust Him, and it clean- 
seth stil], another moment, and it cleanseth, and so on tv 
the end. A constant succession of acts of faith is need: 
ful for the soul, as breathing is for the body. 

Another thought about breathing. That which at first 
as difficult, becomes easy by habit. The first inspirations 
of the new-born child are painful and hard. A man re- 
suscitated from drowning or suffocation breathes gasp- 
ingly and laboriously. He must for a time devote his 
whole attention to his breathing—he must bring his wil 
to bear upon it. He must exercise both his voluntary 
and his involuntary muscles to keep up his breathing. 
But when respiration becomes established, the process 
then goes on by virtue of physiological relation between 
the nervous centres and the muscular system—goes on 
without the attention of the individual, without any 
conscious exercise of his volition, whilst he is engaged 
about other business, and not at all thinking of his breath- 
ing, nay, even while he is asleep. 

In many instances, also, the exercise of faith in those 
who are just struggling into life, or those who are just 
being restored from backsliding, is exceedingly difficult. 
Their whole attention must be directed to the matter of 
believing. Their wills must be brought to bear in aid 


WALKING IN THE SPIRIT. 131 


of their believing power ; they must strive and determine 
to believe; and thus by degrees their spiritual respira- 
tion will be established, it will become the holy habit of 
the soul to trust in Christ, they will naturally turn their 
thoughts to Him when disengaged from other things, 
and He will not be unmindful of them when necessarily 
taken up with proper business. Consciously or uncon- 
sciously their union with Him will be maintained ; and 
in the valley and shadow of death, when mind and 
memory are failing, when the departing one cannot rec- 
ognize the friends around his bed, nor remember the 
covenant that he has made with God, He will remember 
it; Me will look in merey upon His dying child, and 
will receive him to the embraces of His everlasting love. 
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His 
saints,” 


REMARKS, 


I. 


The evidences to ourselves that we are sanctified 
Christians are, (1.) The consciousness of entire surren- 
der, (2.) The consciousness of supreme love to God. 
(3.) The witness of the Spirit. 


IT, 


The evidences to others that we are sanctified , are to 
be found in a life and conversation such as becometh 
godliness—the constant bringing forth of the fruits of 
the Spirit in all righteousness, and goodness, and truth. 
If a Christian believer is enabled to rejoice evermore, to 


1hsy4 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


pray without ceasing, and in everything to give thanks; 

and if his face shines with the radiance of the in-dwell- 

ing Spirit, candid inquirers will be constrained to ac- 

knowledge—This man has the pearl I am seeking. 

But many will refuse to believe on any evidence that 

anybody is sanctified. Your Witt jArg ro} 
III. 


Holiness is not only a state to be obtained, a gift to 
be received, but also a life to be lived, a way to be 


travelled. 
Vie 


By a definite act of consecration and faith we get into 
the highway of holiness. By continuous surrender and 
trust, abiding in Christ, we walk upon that highway. 
He is the Door, and He is the Way. 


QUOTATIONS. 
ts 


“Tf then, kind reader, you would retain the blessing 
of perfect love, you must feel, continually, that it is 
both your duty and privilege to be sanctified. To enjoy 
at all times the cleansing efficacy of the Redeemer’s blood, 
continually must you be consecrating all to God, and 
looking to Him for purity of heart; and every moment 
must you believe you are accepted, and that the blood of 
Jesus cleanseth you from all unrighteousness.” 


EF, Boynton. 
Ti 


“Tt is both the Spirit and the blood, co-working by 
the power of a perpetual faith in Christ, that avails for 


. 


WALKING IN THE SPIRIT. T35 


perpetual cleansing. This was taught—in type—in the 
manner of consecrating the priests. They were to be 
sprinkled, not only with oil, but also with blood.”— 
Di.) ea elle 
L. Wooparp. 
Vid dy 


“The value of a thing is known by what it takes to 
preserve it, as well as by what it originally costs. Men 
may steal your diamonds, who would not trouble things 
of less worth. The cost of holiness was the blood of the 
Son of God; and greatly does he mistake, who supposes 
it can be preserved by anything short of eternal 


vigilance.” 
UPHAM. 
IV. 


“A. practical question some soul propounds:—How to 
keep the Comforter? He will keep Himself and you 
too, if you will let Him. He is not so capricious as 
many imagine. He is in no haste to leave any bosom 
after so long an endeavor to get an invitation to enter it. 
Nothing but sin can dislodge Him. The soul which 
holds Him by faith, shall be upheld by Him. Teneo et 


Teneor.” 
STEELE. 


Vv. 


“Year by year such Christians are seen to grow more 
unworldly and heavenly-minded, more transformed, 
more like Christ, until even their very faces express so 
much of the beautiful, inward, Divine life, that all who 
look at them cannot but take knowledge of them that 
they live with Jesus, and are abiding in Him.” 


H. W. Smrra. 


134 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
VI. 


“When Christ is accepted, and enthroned in the heart 
as an in-dwelling King, and the government is laid over 
upon His shoulders, then, indeed, it is in the hands of 
One who can compel all His enemies, and only by the 
power of a new affection, even the affection for the new 
King, chiefest among ten thousand. Yes—and the will 
—that stiff-necked thing—oh, how He can make it will- 
ing in the beauty of holiness, and keep it so.” 

BoARDMAN, 


VII. 


“You received Lire at your conversion; you have 
received Purrry throughout body, soul, and spirit, now 
that you are sanctified wholly. You are to grow unto 


MATURITY. > 
Cv1nvittten ., eee Sn 
LIFE. + «PURITY. — “MATURES 
(as a gift.) (as a gift.) (growth.) 


“Hold fast the entire Faith, namely: That by faith 
in Jesus Christ, through His blood, and by the Holy 
Spirit, you are now cleansed from ALL filthiness of the 
flesh and spirit, from ALL sin, from ALL unrighteous- 
ness, redeemed from ALL iniquity, and PURIFIED 
UNTO GOD. Or, to use other Bible figures, you haye, 
through the Spirit, crucified the flesh with the passions 
and lusts; are DEAD INDEED UNTO SIN, FREE FROM 
sin. The old man is not rendered inert or inoperative 
as some say, but is put off. 

“Christ, by the will of the Father, is to you, through 
Faith, the only procuring and sustaining cause of your 
sanctification. You do not get holiness by growing, by 


WALKING IN THE SPIRIT. boo 


doing, by suffering, by bettering yourself, by legality, 
nor by works. Means of grace in their proper place are 
not to be neglected ; but they become misleading, the in- 
stant it is imagined that they can in any wise procure 
sanctification. Chastisement, in whatever form, bends 
the will to despise self, and trust God, that we may be 
sanctified, but it does not sanctify us. 

“As we are now, and as we must ever be entirely wn- 
worthy, it therefore requires the same virtue of the A tone- 
ment (to which we are ever linked) to sustain our sanctifi- 
cation as to give it at the first, and therefore the same 
continuous acting of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
‘Watch ye, stand fast in the faith.’ 

“Tf you become confused or get into difficulties, define 
your position immediately. That is, declare in your 
heart in spite of all feelings or thinkings to the con- 
trary, and with your lips if you like, that you do now 
believe that the blood of Christ does cleanse, and the 
power of God does keep you from all sin. Then hold 
on there by naked faith alone (no matter how you feel), 
yea, by desperate faith if need be, until the trial is over. 
After this manner define your position every morning, 
the first thing when you awake, ‘This is important. 

“Vinally—Be careful for nothing, be prayerful for 
everything, be thankful for anything.” 

W. W. Smytx. 


CHAPTER VII. 


DIFFICULTIES SOLVED. 


I. 


1s NOT SANCTIFICATION RECEIVED BY ALL CHRIS- 
TIANS CO-INSTANTANEOUSLY WITH THEIR CON- 
VERSION ? 


EGENERATION being the beginning, and sane- 


tification the completion of the work of inward 
holiness, these are distinct states of grace, imparted by 
the Holy Spirit; but they need not be far apart in time. 
In some instances—which, however, seem to be very 
rare—the experiences are received at once, or, at least, 
cannot be separated by the consciousness of the indi- 
vidual; and it is said that one man was converted, 
sanctified, called to the ministry, and entered upon the 
ministry—just as in the case of the Apostle Paul—with- 
in three days. But, if all persons are sanctified when 
they are converted, it follows that all Christians now 
living, unless they are in a state of backsliding, are 
wholly sanctified. And yet the number is comparatively 
small, who even lay claim to such an experience, while 
the great majority, so far from claiming it or seeking it, 
do not even believe in it. 

Furthermore, the idea that all persons are sanctified 
at their conversion, is quite unscriptural. The Corin- 
thians were undoubtedly converted Christians, yet they 
were “carnal,” “ babes,” and far from being holy in their 
lives. The Galatians were Christians, yet, seeking to 

136 


DIFFICULTIES SOLVED. Pe 


gain perfection by the works of the law. The Thessalo- 
mians were Christians, yet Paul prays that the God of 
peace might “sanctify them wholly.” The Hebrews 
were Christians, yet, the inspired writer exhorts them to 
leave “principles and go on to perfection.” I have 
stated that sanctification is imparted in connection with 
the baptism with the Holy Ghost; and this baptism is 
evidently not always experienced at conversion. It was 
not experienced till Pentecost by the hundred-and- 
twenty, who, nevertheless, had all been converted before 
Pentecost. It was not experiened by the Samaritans 
who were converted by the preaching of Philip, until 
Peter and John prayed for them, and laid their hands 
on them. Conversion, therefore, and sanctification, are 
separate and distinct experiences, which may, neverthe- 
less—and ought to—come very near together ; and not 
to be separated, as they often are, by forty years, or a 
life-time of wilderness wandering. 


18 & 
IS SANCTIFICATION FOR ALL BELIEVERS? 


Some earnest Christians hesitate to believe that so 
great a blessing as holiness can be for them. It may be 
-possible, they argue, for a few ministers or plously-dis- 
posed persons, who have leisure to devote themselves to 
religion, to receive and live out this great blessing ; but 
for us, men of business, men of many cares, brought into 
daily contact with a sinful world, it is out of the range 
of possibility for us to be kept wholly free from its stains 
and corruptions. The man overwhelmed with worldly 
business—the woman fretted and worried with household 
cares, says, almost despairingly, “J¢ is not for me.” 


138 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


Now, let these glance for a moment at the third chap- 
ter of Ephesians, and read what Dr. Steele has aptly 
called “ Paul’s higher life prayer :”—“ For this cause 
I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ,” ete. Who was it that Paul was praying for? 
Only a few ministers of the Gospel? A few piously 
disposed persons? A few men and women of leisure, 
who had all their time to devote to religion? The Ep- 
hesian Church was made up, principally no doubt, of 
laboring men, artisans—makers in former years, perhaps, 
of silver shrines for Diana—and women, with, in all 
probability, families of children, and all the usual pres- 
sure of household cares incident to persons in their cir- 
cumstances, They had evidently been addicted, before 
their conversion, to low forms of vice, for the Apostle 
exhorts them “ to put away lying,” and “let them that 
stole steal no more,” and not to allow “any corrupt 
communication to proceed out of their mouth.” And 
yet, for just such people as these—with all the cares, and 
troubles, and perplexities incident to narrow circum- 
stances, and the necessity of toil for their daily bread— 
Paul prays that they may be strengthened by the Spirit 
in the inner man; may have Christ to dwell in their 
hearts by faith; may be rooted and grounded in love; 
may understand and know the mathematical, solid con- 
tents of the love of Christ, and may be filled with all 
the fulness of God. And then he doubles and triples, 
or squares and cubes, all these stupendous blessings that 
he invokes upon them, by stating that God is able 
to do more than all that we ask or think ;—yes, abun- 
dantly above all; and even exceeding abundantly above 
all. 


DIFFICULTIES SOLVED. 139 


If, then, any of my readers are disposed to think that 
the blessing is not for them; if they are full of worry 
and care; if their hindrances are many and great; if 
their burdens are heavy and grievous to be borne; let 
them not yield to discouragement, and cease to ask or 
seek for the fulness of the blessing, but, let them rather 
say :—“Just because of my cares and troubles, and toils, 
and worries, therefore I must have this great salvation, 
if others can afford to do without it, I cannot.” And 
so, casting their care—outward and inward—upon Jesus, 
let them believe, and enter into a sweet rest of soul in 
Him who careth for them. 

And, if any think it a matter of temperament, and 
that the morbidly melancholic cannot obtain this boon 
of having an in-dwelling Saviour to save them from tor- 
menting doubts and fears, let them read these words of 
Daniel Steele :— 


“Salvation from doubts that I am now and forever 
wholly the Lord’s, This is the most astonishing tri- 
umph of grace over a temperament naturally melan- 
cholic—an introspecting, self-anatomizing, and self-ac- 
cusing style of piety, characteristic of my ancestry. 
Perfect rest from all apprehension of future ill. Salva- 
tion from worry is no small thing; especially in the 
case of one whose views of life are strongly tinged with 
indigo. I believe that Jesus, who is the Head over all 
things to His Church, has the programme of my best 
possible future. My only anxiety, moment by moment, 


is this—Am I now led by the Spirit of God?” 


140 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


II. 


IS HOLINESS A CONDITION OF HEART WHICH IS 
FREE FROM TEMPTATION? 


By no means, Any one who accepts the plain Scrip- 
tural statements about the existence and personality of 
Satan—the real, powerful, intelligent, malignant, spirit- 
ual adversary with whom we have to contend—the devil, 
the liar, the tempter, the deceiver, the accuser, the de- 
stroyer, the roaring lion, the old serpent, the false angel 
of light, the prince of the power of the air, the god of 
this world—will not expect to reach a state in this life 
in which he shall wholly escape the assaults of such an 
enemy. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself was tempted. 
Yes, in all points in which His believing, sanctified fol- 
lowers are tempted, and yet without sin. There is, 
therefore, no sin in being tempted. The sin is in yield- 
ing, in cherishing the temptation till it takes root in the 
desires and the will, resulting, finally, it may be, in the 
sinful word or the sinful act. The disciple is not above 
his Master, but every one that is perfect shall be as his 
Master. And, therefore, even those whose hearts are 
perfect in love shall be tempted. But, on the other hand, 
we have the blessed assurance, “In that He Himself 
hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to succor those 
who are tempted.” 

Temptations, or tempting objects, are presented by 
Satan to the intellect ; and it is his purpose that they 
should pass through the intellect into the sensitive and 
volitional part of our nature, so as to induce in the ap- 
petites, the propensities, the affections, and, finally, the 
will, a wrong action—wrong either in kind, or in degree. 


DIFFICULTIES SOLVED. 141 


We are sometimes tempted to admit into our hearts, feel- 
ings and desires which ought not to exist at all. We are 
sometimes tempted to a perverted or excessive indulgence 
of feelings and desires, which, to a certain extent, and 
with proper limitations, may be innocent and right. In 
either class of cases we are to ascertain—by a careful 
study of the Holy Scriptures, or by the immediate teach- 
ing of the Holy Spirit—just where it is that temptation 
ends and sin begins; and then we are to give heed to 
the intimations of a tender and enlightened conscience, 
which bids us at all hazards turn from the wrong and 
follow the right. 

Conscience is a natural faculty, and given to all man- 
kind, Every responsible human being has a sense of 
obligation—a belief that he ought to do certain things, 
and to abstain from doing others. And this feeling of 
obligation is ever impelling him to a corresponding 
action. His conscience is always saying to him, Da 
what you think is right. His ideas of duty are derived 
principally from education, and are liable to be exceed- 
ingly vague and erroneous, especially where there is no 
outward knowledge of the Gospel or of the requisitions 
of Scripture. But still his conscience urges him to do 
what he thinks is right. 

From whatever source your convictions of right and 
wrong are derived, conscience bids you act up to those 
convictions, and condemns you if you do not do so. A 
man may do a thing conscientiously, which is, neverthe- 
less, not a right and proper thing to be done. A man 
may, conscientiously, deprive himself of a thing which 
God has not forbidden, and which, therefore, is not 
wrong. ‘The advantage, “much every way,” to those 


142 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


who have the oracles of God, over those who have them 
not, is, so far as the question of duty is concerned, chiefly 
in this—that when a man acts conscientiously with the 
open Bible before him, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, 
he not only does what he believes to be God’s will, but 
what is God’s will. 

It is not only true that the holiest persons will be 
subject to temptation through life, but it not un- 
frequently happens that their temptations are greater in 
exact proportions to their holiness; that is to say, as 
they surrender themselves wholly to the Lord, and trust 
Him for a clean heart, Satan’s assaults upon them be- 
come not less frequent and less severe, but precisely the 
reverse. The more you resist his temptations, the more 
he will be induced to try his full strength upon you, 
which it will not be necessary for him to do if you yield 
easily. he children of Israel were not sent to Canaan 
the nearest route, because they were not in a condition 
to resist a determined, warlike people such as the Phil- 
istines. As they became better acquainted with the 
Lord’s dealings, and learned to trust Him more, He 
allowed them to meet their enemies in battle. But their 
severest and most protracted wars were after they came 
into the land itself. 

And so very great temptations are often a sign, not of 
a low, but of a high state of grace; for if you are beset 
by “principalities and powers and wicked spirits,” it is 
because you are in heavenly places. Be not, therefore, 
discouraged. If the warfare is long and severe, it will, 
nevertheless, be true if you abide in uninterrupted union 
with your Commander—the Captain of salvation—that 
the victory will be constant and complete. 


DIFFICULTIES SOLVED. 143 


The temptations of a sanctified heart are principally 
from without. While the “infection of nature”—the 
remains of carnality—still continue in the heart, there 
will be a disposition to cherish the temptation and to 
make a favorable response to the suggestion of the evil 
one. But when perfect love has been wrought in the 
soul, when it has been sanctified wholly, then it reckons 
itself, and, through Christ, realizes itself to be dead to 
sin, and promptly repels the temptation. There is no 
Parley the porter within, to open the castle gates to the 
enemy without. And yet it is possible still to listen 
to Satan, and to reason with him until he again injects 
sin into even a clean heart, just as of old he “ beguiled 
Eve,” whose heart was perfectly pure, “by his sub- 
tlety.” 

“A person may be sanctified to God,” says Dr. Up- 
ham, “his heart may be pure in the Divine sight, and 
still there may be a constant struggle on the part of the 
‘old man,’ or the ‘old nature,’ to regain possession. It 
is difficult to explain this, viz., that a truly holy heart 
may still have a struggle antagonistical to sin, and often- 
times a fearful struggle; but it is probably owing, in ad- 
dition to the direct temptations of Satan, to the tremend- 
ous power of antecedent evil habits. The principle of 
self-love, for instance, may by divine grace be redeemed 
from its selfish attitude, and may be brought to its true 
subjective position, and become a holy principle; and 
yet, in consequence of its previous habits of inordinate 
exercises there may be a strong tendency, which requires 
constant resistance to resume its former position of ir- 
regularity and sin. This tendency is not, properly 
speaking, in the principle itself, but is forced upon it, 


$44 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


exteriorly, if we may so express it by the law of habit ; 
and therefore, although it is extremely dangerous, it 
does not appear to be necessarily sinful. The reformed 
inebriate has refrained from drinking ; but the influence 
of the antecedent law of habit is still felt in his system. 
He is no longer guilty of the sin of drinking; but his 
liability to fall into this sin is greatly increased by 
his antecedent evil habit. Something like this is the 
case with those who have just entered into that state 
where they can say, they ‘love the Lord with all their 
heart” The enemy is cast out; but he avails himself of 
the influence of the Jaw of habit, to take a hostile atti- 
tude and to seck a re-entrance.” 

If the sanctified believer is liable to temptation, it fol- 
lows that it is possible for him to sin. Sanctification 
does not destroy a man’s moral agency. He is still to 
choose to be kept and saved, and is kept and saved only 
while thus choosing. It is possible for him to fall, but 
possible also—let the Lord be praised—not to fall, be- 
cause Christ is able to keep him from falling. It is only 
by abiding in Christ that he can be safe a single moment. 
Therefore he needs to watch and pray, and that con- 
tinually. 

But those who are wholly the Lord’s, watch Jesus 
more than themselves. “Looking unto Jesus” is the 
attitude of their soul. Lord, what wilt Thou have me to 
do? is their constant inquiry. They are on the alert for 
the slightest intimations of His will, and move in re- 
sponse as the branch moves to and fro at the gentle 
touch of the breeze. They watch that nothing may 
separate them from Christ. They watch that they may 
retain possession of the goodly land, They watch for 


DIFFICULTIES SOLVED. 145 


the approach of the enemy, and fly to the cleft of the 
Rock. 

And do they not pray? Why, they dwell in an at- 
mosphere of prayer. Their life is a continual prayer. 
They know what it is to pray without ceasing. ‘They 
perhaps exhibit in their prayers less agonizing and more 
resting than others, less struggling and more believing, 
fewer importunate requests and more joyous thanksgiv- 
ings; but none are oftener on their knees, either in the 
closet or the public assembly, whether for themselves or 
others, than the sanctified believers in Jesus. 

And none take more delight than they in the prayer- 
ful perusal of the Holy Scriptures. They find them all 
aglow with the doctrine of holiness so precious to their 
souls. Every means of grace prized by the justified is 
prized the more when they are sanctified. ‘There is no 
self-complacent resting in themselves or their attainments, 
as if there were no further danger and no more need of 
care. heir rest is not in what they have attained, but 
in Jesus. It is not that they have no need, but that 
their need is all supplied in Jesus. It is not that Satan 
has ceased to tempt them, but that they are victorious in 
Jesus. It is not that they have no sorrow, but that in 
Jesus their sorrow is turned into joy. It is not that they 
have no care, but that they east their cares on Jesus. It 
is not that storms and floods do not come, but that they 
are fixed upon the Rock—Christ Jesus. They are 
nothing. Christ as all. 

There is one of the devices of Satan which those 
whose hearts have been made perfect in love ought not 
to be ignorant of: this is, the suggestion by him of evil 
and blasphemous thoughts to their minds, and then dis- 

10 


146 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


couraging them by accusing them of being themselves 
the authors of these wicked imaginings. Some earnest 
Christians are thus tempted, and it may be, specially so 
when engaged in prayer ; all kinds of vile and harassing 
thoughts coming into their minds and shutting out their 
communion with God. They are thus brought into great 
perplexity and discouragement, sometimes being quite 
ready to doubt whether they are even Christians at all, 
much more whether they are walking upon the highway 
of holiness. We can no more avoid these whisperings 
of Satan than we can avoid hearing the profane conver- 
sation of wicked men with whom we may be thrown in 
contact ; and we should learn at once to repel the accu- 
sations of our enemy and to cast back his evil sugges- 
tions upon himself, fully assuring ourselves that he is 
the author of them, and not we. The Holy Spirit will 
be near to aid; and if we have a single eye to Him, He 
will enable us to distinguish between the thoughts of evil 
thus injected into our minds by the tempter, and volun- 
tary evil thoughts originated and cherished with the con- 
sent of the unsanctified heart, which thus becomes the 
author of its own temptations. The former may be very 
harassing, but are not, in themselves sinful. The same 
cannot be said of the latter. 


IV. 


IS NOT SANCTIFICATION A GRADUAL WORK, AND 
THE RESULT OF GROWTH IN GRACE? 


As sanctification is a definite act of God’s grace, there 
must be a definite time when that act is performed. 
There is a time when the penitent believing sinner is 
justified and regenerated, whether that time is manifest 


- 
Ee 


—_————— 


DIFFICULTIES SOLVED. 147 


to his consciousness or not, and there is a time when the 
consecrated believer receives a clean heart, whether he is 
conscious of it at the moment cf its reception or not. In 
point of fact, so far as the consciousness is concerned, ex- 
periences differ. Some begin to seek for a holy heart, 
and the light gradually dawns upon them, and at length, 
without any very distinct perception as to time and man- 
ner, they find themselves wholly surrendered to the 
Lord, and perfectly trusting Him and loving Him su- 
premely. Others, after a definite and voluntary surren- 
der, and an equally definite and voluntary act of faith, 
are flooded to overflowing with light, and love, and 
peace, and joy, experiencing, like the believers on the 
day of Pentecost, a conscious and instantaneous filling of 
the Spirit and consequent cleansing of the heart. 

Sanctification, being the work of the Holy Spirit, can- 
not be the result of growth in grace. There may be a 
erowth before it, and a growth in it. The vessel may 
be filled to-day, but it may be so enlarged as to hold 
more to-morrow. Growth in grace does not consist in an 
increase of our own virtues; but an increasing sense of 
God’s love to us, begetting a corresponding increase in 
our love to Him. In order to grow in grace, we must 
be planted in grace; and grace is the rich, warm, genial 
soil of God’s infinite love. 


V. 


CAN A SOUL BE MADE HOLY UNTIL THE HOUR OF 
DEATH ? 


God’s command to His people is—“ Be ye holy ;” and 
He nowhere tells them that they may put off obedience 
to this command until the day of their death. Zacharias 


148 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


says that we are to serve the Lord without fear, in holi- 
ness and righteousness before Him all the days of our 
lives. We are not informed that death is a sanctifier. 
Jesus is made unto us sanctification. We are sanctified 
by the Spirit of our God. Sanctification is used in direct 
connection “ with belief of the truth,” by Paul, and with 
“sprinkling of the blood of Jesus,” by Peter. [ap a man 
is sanctified in the hour and ar foe of death, it is because, 
renouncing all merit and all hope in every earthly thing, 
he casts himself, in entire surrender and perfect trust, \ 
into the arms of Jesus. The Holy Ghost fills him and / 
cleanses him, because then, for the first time, he puts his +| 
case wholly in His hands. And would not precisely the | 
same result follow a similar consecration and faith, if ] 
these were exercised a year, or ten years, or fifty ye 


before the hour of death 2") / Noy ehrory hist 


VI. 


WAS NOT THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT CON- 
FINED TO APOSTOLIC TIMES? 


Aur 


IS NOT THIS BAPTISM NOW RECEIVED BY ALL CHRIS- 
TIANS AT THE TIME OF THEIR CONVERSION? 


The propositions implied in the sixth and seventh 
questions cannot both be true. If the baptism was con- 
fined to Apostolic times, it cannot now be given to all 
believers at conversion. But both these questions, we 
believe, have been sufficiently answered already. Peter 
told the multitude on the day of Pentecost, that the 
promise (of the Spirit) was to them, and their children, 
“even as many as the Lord our God shall call,” More- 


DIFFICULTIES SOLVED. 149 


over, there have been and are still, many witnesses to 
the reception of this baptism, in their own’ conscious 
experience, and this—in the very great majority of in- 
stances at least—-at a period subsequent to their con- 
version. ) - 

It is certain that Christ’s baptism—or the filling of 
the Spirit—was not received by the church of the hun- 
dred-and-twenty, nor by the Samaritans who accepted 
the word of God through Philip’s preaching, until 
after their conversion. As this is the baptism that 
cleanseth ; if all receive it at conversion, then all Chris- 
tians are sanctified at the time when they are born again, 
and the Church of Christ on earth must consist, in every 
age, of wuolly sanctified members. But the testimony 
of tens of thousands, who cannot at all doubt their son- 
ship, who are sure that they have passed from death 
unto life~-through faith in Christ—but are also con- 
scious of the remaining corruption of their hearts, would 
palpably contradict such an assumption. And, if all 
Christians are made pure in heart at their conversion, 
why are these emphatic exhortations addressed to be- 
lievers, in the Holy Scriptures—“ Be ye holy ;” “be ye 
perfect ;” “go on to perfection,” and “the God of peace 
sanctify you wholly.” 

And yet, I must not fail again to mention the fact— 
however paradoxical and inconsistent I may appear to 
my readers—that every one does, in some sense, receive 
the Spirit, and is, in some sense, made holy at the time 
of his conversion. Whosoever receives the Son, has the 
~ Tather, and the Spirit also. No man can say that Jesus 
8 Lord but by the Holy Spirit. “If any man have not 
the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” And whosoever 


150 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


has been forgiven, or justified—as has been remarked 
elsewhere—begins to be holy. But, this reception of the 
Holy Spirit which is in connection with conversion, is 
not at all that baptism and filling of the Spirit to which 
believers are called. And this partial cleansing which 
occurs at conversion, is only the beginning of what is 
consummated, when—by Christ’s baptism—the believer 
is sanctified wholly. 


Vill. 


DOES NOT CHRIST’S BAPTISM CONSIST OF CERTAIN 
MIRACULOUS GIFTS? 


The gifts of the Spirit, whether consisting of the 
power to work miracles of any kind, or in something 
less wonderful, were, and are, given to every man sever- 
ally, as He will. ‘They are given to some and withheld 
from others; but the baptism of the Holy Ghost, is the 
in-coming and the in-dwelling of the Spirit in the heart 
of a believer. And, if He first gives us Himself, we can 
be content—so far as other and minor gifts are con- 
cerned—to receive what He gives, and want what He 
withholds; though still not neglecting to “covet earn- 
estly the best.” 


1G: 


IS THE SANCTIFIED BELIEVER ALWAYS FULL OF 
JOY? 


Holiness undoubtedly is a rich field. There is much 
Joy in it. He who is holy cannot be miserable. The 
Saviour spoke certain comforting words to His disciples, 
that their joy might be full. We are told to “rejoice ever- 
more ;” that “the joy of the Lord is your strength ;” 


DIFFICULTIES SOLVED. neiyl 


that, “your joy no man taketh from you.” But, it is 
not to be understood that the joy of the sanctified be- 
liever is unceasing rapture, or ecstasy. It is rather char- 
acterized by a feeling of quiet peace; a rest of soul—the 
tranquillity of a spirit poised in harmony with God’s 
will. 

Perhaps a distinction may justly be drawn between 
happiness and yoy. This distinction, if it has a real ex- 
istence, may be stated as follows, viz.: joy—and the 
same is true of peace, which may indeed be regarded as 
one form of joy 


arises from the inner-being, welling up 
from the heart itself; while happiness is more of an out- 
ward feeling, having reference to the circumstances under 
which we are placed at the time. Holy joy is found in 
communion with God; in eating the hidden manna; in 
dwelling in the secret places of the Most High; in abid- 
ing under the shadow of the Almighty; in having the 
mind stayed on God. Happiness, on the other hand, is 
found in agreement between our wills and our surround- 
ings. It very often happens that we cannot bring cir- 
cumstances to our wills, and then, the only resource we 
have, in order to avoid unhappiness, is to bring our wills 
to circumstances. God’s hand is in the circumstances 
and occurrences of our daily life, as it is in everything 
else, and we must learn to recognize it there. Hvents 
are providences, and our Heavenly Father either permits 
or causes everything that happens to us. ‘To see, in even 
the heaviest calamities, a manifestation of God’s will, and 
to bow in humble resignation to that will ;—these are 
the means of obtaining relief from the pressure. 


“< Thy will be done ’’— Tis this which rolls 
Their agony from suffering souls.” 


152 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


If the above remarks are entitled to consideration, it 
will follow that joy, or peace, being an inward princi- 
ple, is more permanent; while happiness, depending 
upon outward circumstances, is more transitory and un- 
certain. Bearing in mind the distinction already given 
between the two terms, we might say then, a man’s hap- 
piness may be disturbed, and even greatly disturbed, by 
many things which.do not at all disturb his inward 
peace or joy. 

The Christian—and even the holiest Christian—is 
subject, like other men, to the restrictions and limitations 
of humanity. He hungers and thirsts; he suffers phy- 
sical pain; he meets with afflictions and bereayements, 
crosses and disappointments; he is tried and tempted ; 
he finds many occasions of sorrow and mourning, just as 
other men do, and he feels them as other men feel them. 

{ But, if his mind is kept fixed upon God, while these 
agitations may greatly affect his outward enjoyment, they 
do not disturb his inward rest.) Every cistern may fail ; 
one by one the sources of his earthly hopes and enjoy- 

’ ment may be cut off; prop after prop upon which he 
has leaned may be forced from under him; he may be 
bruised, and scathed, and peeled, but still the language 
of his heart is, not only—“ though he slay me, yet will 
I trust in Him,” but even—“TI will rejoice in the Lord; 
I will joy in the God of my salvation.” } In the midst of 
sufferings and trials, labors and distresses, persecutions 
and afflictions, such as have scarcely been the lot of any 
other man, the Apostle could say—“ None of these things 
move me; neither count I my life dear unto myself, so 
that I might finish my course with joy.” Outward com- 
motions did not disturb the Sabbath- keeping of his soul. 


DIFFICULTIES SOLVED. Pho 


When storms come down upon the Atlantic, when the 
sea roars and is troubled, when men’s hearts are failing 
them for fear, and the waves are threatening to over- 
whelm the frail vessel that is tossed up and down upon 
them, even then but a few feet below the surface all is 
calm as a summer’s sun. At the very time that the 
tempest is raging so fearfully above, 


‘Then, far below, in the peaceful sea, 
The purple mullet and goldfish rove, 
Where the waters murmur tranquilly 
Through the bending twigs of the coral grove.” 


And thus the severest trials that are permitted to over- 
take the sanctified believer are but surface storms, which, 
however terrible they may be without, are scarcely able 
to agitate at all the inward tranquillity of a soul that is 
anchored in God. 

Instances occur not unfrequently of individuals expe- 
riencing quiet rest of soul, and even joy of heart, while 
enduring intense physical pain. “ In the most peaceful 
state of every corporeal function,’ says Dr. Abercombie, 
“passion, remorse, and anguish may rage within; and 
while the body is racked by the most frightful tortures, 
the mind may repose in tranquillity, and hope.” And if 
physical pain is entirely compatible with inward peace 
and joy, so also are sufferings, afflictions, and sorrows 
which are mental and not physical. 

Tribulations. are a part of the legacy left us by our 
Master. “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” He 
Himself was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief.” At one time He said in the depth of His myste- 


154 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


rious anguish, “ My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even 
unto death.” But even in that dark hour, love tri- 
umphed. Whilst He prayed that if it were possible the 
cup might pass from Him, He also said, “ Nevertheless, 
not as I will, but as Thow wilt.” In the hour of in- 
tensest agony there was yet no resistance to His Father's 
will. And thus we learn that affliction and sorrow of 
the most poignant character are entirely compatible with 
perfect love, while rebellion is not thus compatible. 

Sanctification, then, does not purchase for its possessor 
exemption from trial and suffering, neither does it so 
blunt his sensibilities that he shall not feel them, and 
feel them keenly. And if he looks at his surroundings 
he will very often find feelings and emotions arising in 
his mind which are very much the reverse of joyful; 
but if he looks unto Jesus, in Him he will have peace, 
and the tender exhortation will come home to him, 
“ Let not your heart be troubled.” 

Sorrow is one thing, trouble is another. 


/ “Tis blessed angel, Sorrow—she hath walked 
For years beside me; and we two have talked 
As chosen friends together. Thus I know 
Trouble and sorrow are not near of kin. 
Trouble distrusteth God, and ever wears 
Upon her brow the seal of anxious cares. 
But Sorrow oft hath deepest peace within. 
She sits with Patience in perpetual calm, 
Waiting till heaven shall send the healing balm.” 


Joy, like love, regarded as a religious affection, can 
only exist in connection with faith. It is those who are 
justified by faith who haye peace with God—the sweet 


DIFFICULTIES SOLVED. 165 


rest of forgiven sin; and it is those who are strengthened 
with might by His Spirit in the inner man, in whose 
hearts Christ dwells by faith, who enjoy the still deeper 
and fuller soul-rest of perfect love, or a clean heart. 
Hence, whether in judging of our present religious state, 
or in seeking after a better one, we need to look more to 
our faith than to our feelings, and more to Christ than 
to either. Right feelings are by no means to be under- 
valued, nor considered of no account in the believer’s 
experience, but right feclings are the result of right faith. 
Where there is little faith there will be little love and 
little joy. Where there is much faith there will be much 
love and much joy. Where there is assurance of faith 
there will be perfect love and fulness of joy. 

If we make joy only the object of our seeking, we 
shall be very likely to fail in finding even that. Not 
joy, but holiness—not feeling, but faith—not happiness, 
but Christ is what we need. And if we have Him we 
shall have all the happiness and all the joy that are best 
for us. The child that is not satisfied without being fed 
all the time on sweetmeats has very inadequte conceptions 
of a parent’s love. [tr o use in my own words an illustra- 
tion borrowed from another, the man who is governed 
by his feelings only, is like a sailing vessel, whose moy- 
ing power is without, which is sometimes getting on 
rapidly, sometimes very slowly, sometimes not at all, 
and whose course is a zig-zig one toward her destined 
haven. But the man whose governing principle is faith, 
is like one of those magnificent steamers which cross the 
Atlantic, whose moving power is within, and which pur- 
sue a Riad rapid, atk undeviating course alike through 
storm and calm, through cloud and sunshine,) 


156 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


EX2s 


DOES SANCTIFICATION ABOLISH THE FEAR OF DEATH, 
AND MAKE ITS POSSESSOR ANXIOUS TO DIE? 


In entire sanctification the believer is brought into 
soul-union with Jesus, and this must take away the fear 
of death, so far as the future judgment is concerned. 
There is no condemnation, all slavish fear is removed, 
while there still remains an awful, reverential, filial fear 
—a fear of offending our Heavenly Father, or of griev- 
ing His Holy Spirit. But the mere physical fear of 
dissolution and lying down in the grave is not necessarily 
removed. 

The holy man is yet a man with all his physical and 
mental infirmities still existing, and, according to his 
peculiar temperament, may have much or little dread of 
death as death. There is, doubtless, even here, in many 
cases, a remarable deliverance. I have heard a dear 
friend, who is wholly the Lord’s, say that he was en- 
tirely free from the fear of death. “If,” said he, “an 
angel from heaven should tell me that I was to die with- 
in ten minutes, I should have nothing to do but write a 
letter to my wife.” But such is not always the case. 
Nor is such entire exemption from the mere physical 
shrinking from death a necessary test of entire sanctifi- 
cation. 

It is equally true also that the sanctifi¢d believer is 
not always anxious to die. Whilst holiness is a prepara- 
tion for dying, it is also a preparation for living, and the 
needed qualification for successful labor in the cause of 
~ Christ. And when we see how white the fields are for 
harvest and how few are the laborers, we ought to 


DIFFICULTIES SOLVED. L5¢ 


esteem it a great privilege to live and work, and, if need 
be, to suffer for Jesus, yea, and count ourselves immortal 
till our work is done. 

Let not the sanctified Christian who is strong and in 
the midst of labors, however abundant, grow weary and 
be in haste to quit the field and go to his rest, nor, on 
the other hand, allow himself to be brought under 
bondage by any undue fear of death. Let no one spend 
his time in crossing bridges before he comes to them, or 
in secking dying grace to live by. The point is to be 
able to say with Paul, “'To me to live is Christ, and to 
die is gain.” “ Whether we live, we liye unto the Lord, 
and whether we die, we die unto the Lord.” Therefore, 
living or dying we are the Lord’s. ‘“ What thy hand 
findeth to do, do it with thy might.” Work while it is 
day, and then when the night cometh, dying grace will] 


not be withheld. 
DAE 


WHAT BECOMES OF A BELIEVER WHO DIES JUSTI: 
FIED BUT NOT SANCTIFIED? 


We may well believe that this never occurs. A justi- 
fied child of God cannot be lost; an unsanctified soul 
cannot be saved. If, therefore, a man who is walking 
in the light of justification and growing in grace, is sud- 
denly cut off, there can be no doubt that the blood of 
Jesus avails to cleanse such a soul from the remaining 
stains of inward corruption, to sanctify it wholly, and 
to give it that “holiness, without which no man shall 
see the Lord.” It is by the precious blood of Christ, 
also, that the souls of infants, idiots, and irresponsible 
persons who are taken away by death are cleansed from 
inbred sin, 


158 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


But while the justified believer may be, and, doubt- 
less, often is thus sanctified in the hour of death, this 
fact furnishes no sufficient reason for any Christian who 
is made to realize, by whatever means, that God requires 
of him and makes it his privilege to be holy now to 
turn away from it and voluntarily to postpone it until the 
approach of death. He cannot neglect or reject the 
added grace that is offered him without incurring a grave 
responsibility. To continue in known disobedience to 
God because we may trust in His mercy at last, is a 
“presumptuous sin.” From such let us pray with 
David that the Lord may keep us back. 


XII. 


IS IT RIGHT FOR A BELIEVER TO CONFESS THAT HE 
HAS RECEIVED, THROUGH GRACE, THE BLESSING 
OF HEART PURITY, OR SANCTIFICATION ? 

We do not find in the Holy Scriptures any counte- 
nance given to the idea that men are to keep their reli- 
gion to themselves. There is scarcely a word indicating 
expression that David does not employ in showing forth 
the goodness of the Lord, He will pray, he will praise, 
he will bless, he will talk, he will tell, he will utter, he 
will declare, he will sing, he will shout, he will ery, he 
will call, he will give thanks, he will lift up his voice, 
he will make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Ina few 
instances, it is true, probably for prudential reasons, the 
Saviour forbade those who had been healed by Him to 
make it known, but in others He expressly commanded 
them to tell what great things the Lord had done for 
them; and, when one only of the ten lepers returned to 


DIFFICULTIESSO VED. 159 


give Him glory, there must have been an implied cen- 
sure in His question—“ Were there not ten cleansed ? 
Where are the nine?” 

God’s people in every age of the world are His wit- 
nesses, and they are forbidden to withhold their testi- 
mony. ‘They must not hide their light under a bushel. 
Not by their life and example only, but by their words 
are they to confess Him, and declare themselves on His 
side. Such at least must be at times their privilege, and 
it would seem to be a duty as well. As they are to take 
with them words and turn to the Lord, so with the 
mouth are they to show forth His praise. “We cannot 
but speak,” says Peter, “the things which we have scen 
and heard.” “Tf thou shalt confess with thy mouth the 
Lord Jesus,” says Paul, “and believe in thy heart that 
God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved ; 
for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and 
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” In- 
terpreting the text in the most natural manner, it would, 
be difficult to see why it is not as necessary to confess 
with the mouth as to believe with the heart. 

In the twenty-sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, we find 
the following instructive passage: “And it shall be 
when thou art come unto the land which the Lord Thy 
God giveth thee, for an inheritance, and possessest it, 
and dwellest therein, that thou shalt take of the first of 
all the fruits of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy 
land which the Lord Thy God giveth thee, and shalt 
put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the 
Lord Thy God shall choose to put His name there. 
And thou shalt go to the priest that shall be in those 
days and say unto him, I profess this day unto the Lord 


160 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


Thy God that I am come into the country which the 
Lord sware unto our fathers to give us.” 

At first view this seems very remarkable. It would 
be regarded as very strange if one who has been known 
all his life as a resident of London should arise in a 
public assembly and say : I profess this day that I am 
a citizen of London. But this profession of the Tsrael-— 
ite, made to the Lord in the presence of the priest, and 
we may well suppose with more or less publicity, was 
not without an object. The Lord had promised that the 
land of Canaan should be possessed by the descendants 
of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, and the ceremony 
prescribed by the great Lawgiver was a verbal declara- 
tion that the Lord had been as good as His word, It 
honored Jehovah by setting forth in words His faithful- 
ness to His own covenant. 

And if any of my kind readers have been delivered 
as from Egypt, if they have escaped from the house of 
bondage and lifted up—ah! did they do so?—the song 
of thanksgiving, or in any way the voice of praise, and 
if they have come up to the land of soul-rest and en- 
tered it at Kadesh Barnea, or been led about by a long 
and toilsome march through the wilderness, and at 
length have followed their invincible Captain across the 
Jordan and have entered upon their inheritance, will 
they not declare that He is faithful that promised ? 
Will they not profess this day that they have come into 
the land, and are dwelling in the land which the Lord 
their God giveth them ? 

How instructive is the history of the woman who 
- thought to be healed without any one knowing it! She 
glided through the crowd with a heart full of faith, for 


DIFFICULTIES SOLVED. 161 


she said, “If I may but touch the hem of His garment 
I shall be whole.” She touched the hem of His robe, 
and immediately felt in her body that she was healed of 
her plague. So far so good. But mark what followed. 
The Saviour stopped—all the thronging multitude who 
were following Him to the house of Jairus stopped— 
why? “TI perceive that virtue is gone out of me.” 
Somebody has been blessed, and whoever it is must 
tell it. And it was not till she had fallen down be- 
fore Him, and declared unto Him “ before all the people” 
for what cause she had touched Him and how she was 
healed immediately, that she received the comforting 
words, “ Daughter, be of good comfort, thy faith hath 
made thee whole; go in peace.” 

Jesus expressly tells us that them that confess Him 
before men, He will confess before His Father and the 
angels, Will He only confess them by His actions? 
And how is that confession to be made? Will He only 
show by His conduct and bearing towards them that 
they are His? Ah! we read that the King shall say 
unto them, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
world.” Yes, forever magnified be His blessed and 
holy name, He will confess His people with His mouth! 
And shall they think it too hard a thing to do to con- 
fess Him with their mouth while here on earth? Shall 
they be ashamed of Him or of His words before men? 


“Ashamed of Jesus! just as soon 
Let midnight be ashamed of noon!” 


But are we not told, “ By their fruits ye shall know 
them?” Yes, and what are the fruits? Not only the 
11 


162 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


fruit of the daily life and walk, but the fruit of the lips 
as well. God’s people are a royal priesthood, and every 
individual Christian is a priest in His kingdom. If a 
priest, he must have somewhat to offer. And what shall 
it be? The expiatory and _propitiatory offerings of 
the Levitical priesthood were abolished forever when 
Christ bowed His head upon the cross and said, “It is 
finished.” 

It is, therefore, no longer the bleeding sacrifice of the 
old law that the Christian priest is called upon to offer. 
It still remains true, however, that “the sacrifices of 
God are a broken spirit—a broken and a contrite heart, 
O God, Thou wilt not despise”’ And by our great 
High Priest we are to “ offer the sacrifice of praise to God 
continually—even the fruit of the lips, giving thanks 
unto His name; but to do good and to communicate for- 
get not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” 
Therefore, beloved reader, let us remember that the good 
tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the good fruit is every 
good word, as well as every good work. 

We read of certain “chief rulers” who believed on 
Jesus, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess 
Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue ; 
‘For they loved the praise of men more than the praise 
of God.” Such are found in all ages of the Church. 
If Christians at all, they are very timid and feeble 
Christians. They do not openly and boldly declare their 
pedigree. They are not strong and efficient soldiers in 
the Lamb’s army. They do not let their light shine, 
and thus bring others to glorify God. Motives of sup- 
posed self-interest hold them back from making a direct 
and public avowal of their allegiance to Christ. And 


DIFFICULTIES SOLVED. 163 


the tendency of this vacillating course is to render them 
obscure and perplexed in their own experience, and a 
cause of obscurity and perplexity to those around them. 
it is a difficult matter to know where to place them, and 
on whose side they are to be enrolled. 

How impressive are the Saviour’s words, “ He that is 
not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not 
with me scattereth abroad.” Now there is a particular 
danger in our day of “being put out of the synagogue ” 
to the man who confesses that God, for Christ’s sake, 
has given hima clean heart, and this, added to a natural 
reserve, a fear of falling, so bringing reproach upon the 
cause of holiness, and various other motives, hinder 
many consecrated believing Christians from confessing 
the grace of entire sanctification, even when they humbly 
hope and believe that the Holy Ghost has wrought that 
grace in their souls. 

More persons testify to having lost the evidence of 
perfect love from failing to confess what God had done 
for their souls than from any other cause. John Fletcher, 
of Madely, informs us that he was in this manner de- 
prived of his evidences to a conscious cleansing no less 
than four times. Again, I say, we must neither be 
ashamed of Christ nor of [His words. 

But this confession ought always to be a confession of 
Christ. Everything that savors of Pharisaical righteous- 
‘ness, or boasting, or self-exaltation, should be excluded 
from it; otherwise it were better not made at all. En- 
compassed as we are with infirmities, and liable always 
to sins of ignorance, no man dare say—“ TI have lived a 
year, or five years, or ten years, without sinning.” 
Rather will he say, with the deepest humility —“ My 


164 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


Deliverer has proved Himself mighty to save, and able 
to keep. To His name be the praise.” Instead of say- 
ing—“T am perfect, I am holy, I am sanctified ;” it is 
better, safer, wiser to say—Christ is my sanctification. 
The blood cleanseth me.” Or with George Fox— 
“Christ, my Saviour, hath taken away my sin.” The 
testimony should keep ourselves out of sight, and honor 
the Saviour only. It is not what I have done, but what 
Jesus has done for me. It is not what I have attained, 
but what Jesus has given me. It is the nothingness of 
self, and the glory of God, that are to be promoted by 
the confession—if it have any value. 

“It is generally,” says Upham, “ and, perhaps, we 
may say universally, the case, that those who give good 
evidence of being in that state which we variously de- 
scribe as assurance of faith, and as perfect love, and 
which involves the possession of the blessing of present 
sanctification, speak of their state in a qualified, rather 
than in an absolute manner. In other words, they gen- 
crally express themselves (and it is exceedingly proper 
that they should do so) merely as if they hoped, or had 
reason to hope [better, I think, reason humbly to believe. 
—D. C.] that they had experienced this great blessing, 
and were kept free from voluntary and known sin. 
Such a mode of expression seems to be unobjectionable ; 
it is consistent with confession, and corresponds to the 
precise state of the case.” 

The following is from Isaac Penington: “ Now thus 
having met with the true way, I cannot be silent—true 
love and pure life stirring in me and moving me—but 
am necessitated to testify of it to others. As God draweth 
in any respect, ob, give up in faithfulness to Him. De- 


DIFFICULTIES SOLVED. 165 
spise the shame. He that will come into the New Cove- 
nant must come into the obedience of it.” 

Reader, these are true sayings. Let them have their 
due place in thy heart. 

One word more about confession; and it isa word of 
caution, If any one who has enjoyed the fulness of the 
blessing, and has witnessed to Jesus as his sanctification , 
finds his experience grown dim, his faith grown weak, 
his luve grown cold; if he no longer realizes—even at 
intervals—the witness of the Spirit to his conscious 
cleansing; if in short, he has lost the evidences of a 
clean heart, let him not confess as a present experience, 
that which is only the memory of a former one. In 
other words, if he has ceased to possess perfect love, let 
him cease also to profess it. 

But, on the other hand, such an individual should not 
be unduly discouraged, nor give up in despair, as if all 
were lost. ‘That would be giving place to the devil. 
Let him humble himself, and seek to know—if he does 
not know—how he has lost the inestimable jewel of a 
holy heart; and, in renewed consecration and trust, let 
him beseech the Lord, once more to sanctify him wholly 
—to set his feet on the highway of holiness; to keep 
him from falling, and to establish his goings. Whilst 
he sincerely mourns over his lapsed condition, let him 
nevertheless say—“Rejoice not against me, O mine 
enemy. If I fall, I shall rise”? ‘With the Lord 
helping me, I will try again.” 


CHAPTER IX. 


ENDUED BY THE SPIRIT. 


HE enduement of power, a3 well as sanctification, 
is a result of Christ’s baptism. When the Holy 
Ghost fell upon the Church of the hundred-and-twenty, 
on the day of Pentecost, they received not only the 
purifying of their hearts by faith, but the enduement of 
power as well. The Apostles, for more than three years, 
had been in almost daily companionship with Jesus. He 
had instructed them in the doctrines of the Gospel. He 
had opened to them the Scriptures concerning Himself. 
He had expounded to them His own parables. He had 
given them “power and authority over all devils, and to 
cure diseases.” He had sent them “ to preach the King- 
dom of God, and to heal the sick.” They had been pres- 
ent at His miracles, and after His public crucifixion, 
they had seen Him alive—thus becoming witnesses of His 
resurrection, and, afterwards, of His ascension. 

And yet, all these advantages—unspeakably important 
as they were—did not Palit them for the work of 
evangelizing the world. Something else was needed. 
The Saviour had given them their commission and their 
field —* Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel 
to every creature ;” but He also told them, just as defi- 
nitely, to tarry at Jerusalem, till they should be endued 
with power from on high; and to “ wait for the promise 
of the Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of me.” 
And that “promise” was the baptism with the Holy 


Ghost. By that, and that only were they to expect the 
166 


ENDUED BY THE SPIRIT. 167 


needed qualification to perform their appointed mission. 
“ Ve shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost 1s come 
upon you.” 

At this time when Christianity was introduced into 
the world, the mythological religion of the ancient 
Greeks prevailed, with greater or less modifications, 
throughout the Roman Empire. That religion was an 
idolatrous Polytheism. It recognized gods many, and 
lords many. It had become incorporated with the in- 
stitutions of almost every country. The common people 
accepted without question, the absurdities and supersti- 
tions which this religion inculcated ; while they practised, 
without scruple, the sensual vices and bacchanalian revels 
which it sanctioned. 

But this was not all. Learning and genius were also 
consecrated to the heathen divinities, and exhausted 
their efforts in laying “exquisite offerings” upon their 
shrines. In every principal city, some magnificent tri- 
umph of architecture would be exhibited to admiring 
visitors, in the shape of a temple in honor of one of the 
gods or goddesses. With brush, or chisel—on canvas, 
or in marble—the most beautiful representation of the 
human form or “face divine,” were produced as like- 
nesses of a Jupiter or a Venus, an Apollo or a Diana, a 
Cupid or a Mercury. 

Poets and musicians obtained a world-wide reputation 
by perpetuating, in verse or in song, the beautiful stories 
of legendary Gast wherein the divine and the human, 
the natural, and the supernatural were strangely hit 
skilfully blended. The interests of the ordinary artisan 
were likewise bound up with the idolatrous religion of 
the world. Thousands of image-makers in many cities, 


168 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


could say with Demetrius—“ By this craft we have our 
wealth ;” and opposed everything calculated to bring 
discredit upon the religion whereby they earned their 
daily bread, with the angry and despairing cry —“ Great 
is Diana of the Ephesians.” 

There are some evidences, indeed, that the Lord was 
preparing our fallen race for its Deliverer; that many 
were growing weary of the vague and unsatisfactory 
superstitions of the day; that the world was, as it were, 
pausing in expectation of some great event, when Deity 
beeame incarnate in the Lord Jesus Christ. However 
this may be, the Apostles were to make no compromise 
with idolatry. If they had been only “setters forth of 
strange gods ;” if they had had nothing to bring before 
the world, except “ questions of their own superstition, 
and of one, Jesus, who was dead, whom Paul affirmed 
to be alive;” if they had simply preached Jesus, as 


another god in addition to the many gods whom “ Asia: 


and the world worshipped ;” if they had simply asked 
for a niche in the heathen temples where a statue of 
Christ should be placed beside those of their Olympic 
deities or of their heroes and demi-gods, it is very possible 
that they would have encountered but little opposition. 

Paul told the Athenians that he perceived that they 
were very much disposed to the worship of divine be- 
ings,* and, to add another to their already long list of 
divinities, would have been no great matter, 

But the Apostles were to proclaim the only true God, 
and Jesus Christ whom He had sent. They were to 
call upon people “to turn from these vanities, unto the 


* Archbishop Whateley. 


peo ene REF AR gE mS gh a a 


ENDUED BY THE SPIRIT. 169 


living God, which made heaven and earth, and the sea, 
and all things that are therein.” They were to boldly 
assert—even when surrounded by splendid edifices, and 
works of Grecian art, dedicated to the heathen divini- 
ties—that God dwelleth not in temples made with 
hands; neither is worshipped with men’s hands, because 
He had written His law in their hearts; and that the 
Godhead must not be regarded as “like unto gold, or 
silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.” They 
were to preach, to Jew and Gentile alike, that there is no 
other name under heayen given amongst men, whereby 
we must be saved, except the name of a crucified and 
risen Jesus; and that God now commands “all men 
everywhere to repent, because He hath appointed a day 
wherein he will judge the world in righteousness, by 
that man whom He hath chosen.” At the name of Jesus 
every knee was to bow, of things in heaven, and things 
in earth; and every tongue to confess that Jesus Christ 
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

These doctrines necessarily struck at the root of all 
false religions, and were a declaration of war—uncom- 
promising and exterminating war—against idolatry. 
They aimed at nothing less than the overturning of 
superstitious opinions and practices, which had descended 
from antiquity, which were established in the popular 
mind and heart, which were identified with the interests 
of a large number of the community, and in honor of 
which had been produced the loftiest creations of genius 
and art which the world has ever seen. 

Now it must be confessed that for a dozen unlearned 
Galilean fishermen this was no small undertaking. One 
man of learning indeed was afterwards added to their 


170 THE OFFICES OF THE IIOLY SPIRIT. 


number, but even he, in addition to his culture and his 
talent, was filled with the Holy Ghost, that he might be 
qualified for his special office—that of the Apostle to the 
Gentiles. 

Before going forth to win the world for Christ, the 
Apostles were commanded to wait at Jerusalem till they 
were endued with power. And immediately on the oc- 
currence of the Pentecostal baptism Peter began to 
preach to the multitude. His words were simple—con- 
sisting principally of quotations from Scripture and wit- 
nessing to Jesus and His resurrection; but he had now 
received the tongue of fire, and at once his hearers were 
pricked in their hearts and began to inquire, “ Men and 
brethren, what shall we do?” The result was that the 
same day there were added unto them about three thou- 
sand souls. 

Now Peter had been preaching before the crucifixion — 
of Christ, so had all the Apostles, so had the seventy 
disciples whom Jesus had sent forth into every town and 
village whither He Himself would come. ‘To what ex- 
tent these had travelled in the ministry and how much 
time they had occupied in it, we are not informed. Nor 
are we prepared to say how many converts had been 
made in all the regions where they had preached. But 
it is safe to say that more souls were converted under 
Peter’s first sermon after the Holy Ghost had come upon 
him than by all the disciples together, in all their min- 
istry before that time. 

On that wonderful day there were three thousand, two 
days afterwards there were five thousand, and then the 

‘number is no longer stated, but we are informed that 
“multitudes were added to the Lord, both men and 


SITIO. 


ENDUED BY TIE SPIRIT. yore 


women.” The Saviour’s words had indeed been fulfilled, 
They had received power by the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit. And they now became witnesses throughout 
Judea, and Samaria, and Galilee, and unto the uttermost 
parts of the earth; for it is supposed that the Gospel was 
preached, during the Apostolic age, to every nation 
known to the Jews. 

The promise of the baptism with its consequent en- 
duement of power, was, according to Peter, to “all that 
are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall 
call.” In other words, it is to all Christians in all ages. 
And, although all are not Apostles, and all do not need 
the special qualifications which the Apostles needed for 
evangelizing the world ; yet, it is just as true of Chris- 
tians now, as it was of them—and true of all Christians 
—that they are not qualified for their life-work in the ser- 
vice of Christ, until they receive the enduement of power, 
by Christ’s own baptism. 

Every justified believer may, and should, do some- 
thing for Christ. Some may even do much for Him, 
through His grace; as the Apostles had power to heal 
the sick, to cast out devils, and to preach the Gospel 
with some success, even before Pentecost. But, none 
can do all that God would have them do, until they re- 
ceive power by the in-coming and in-dwelling of the 
Holy Ghost. 

The enduement of power is something totally distinct 
from intellectual cleverness, from learning, and from 
eloquence. It is best symbolized by the tongue of fire. 
It enables its possessor to speak burning words, which 
make their way to the hearts of his hearers. It is not 
power to tickle the ear, nor to please the fancy, nor to 


[2 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, 


engender pleasurable feelings in the mind; but it is 
simply power to impress men’s hearts, and win their 
souls to Christ. It may be added to gifts of learning, 
as in the case of Paul; or to gifts of eloquence, as in 
Apollos; but it may also be given to unlearned and ig- 
norant men, like Peter and John. It may be possessed 
by a babe in Christ, if he has received the Holy Ghost; 
by the poor and illiterate; by those who can scarcely 
speak a grammatical sentence; by sons, daughters, old 
men, young men, servants, hand-maidens. 

It is sometimes exerted without any words at all; but 
oftener it accompanies the word spoken, whether by the 
cultivated or the uncultivated, and renders it effectual— 
like an arrow in the heart of the King’s enemies. The late 
President Tinney, of Ohio, on one occasion went into a 
manufactory in the State of New York, simply to in- 
spect the machinery, and see the work that was going on. 
He was accompanied by one of the proprietors, and, on 
entering the weaving-room, he noticed two of the opera- 
tives, in a distant part of the chamber, laughing. He 
fixed his eye upon them, calmly and solemnly, and 
gradually approached the place where they were. They 
soon appeared to be in great trepidation. Their laugh- 
ter was changed to tears ; and, when he came near them, 
an indescribable influence overpowered them. ‘They 
ceased working, and went down on their knees, and 
began prayiug. Others followed ; the mysterious influ- 
ence spread from one room to another ; and, finally, the 
proprietor ordered the works to be stopped, and Presi- 
dent Finney preached the Gospel to them. Many were 
converted, and a great revival followed. Truly, “the 
wind bloweth where it listeth,” 


ENDUED BY THE SPIRIT. eS 


I do not at all undervalue the importance of learning 
and talent, when consecrated to the Lord and employed 
in His service. An educated man or woman, when 
really baptized with the Holy Ghost, and endued with 
power from on high, can doubtless render much more 
efficient and important service in the cause of Christ, 
than one who is uneducated; but I must insist that 
Christian scholarship—even of the highest order—is 
something totally distinct from the power of the Holy 
Ghost. And I do not hesitate to add that, in many in- 
stances, a man of very little knowledge or culture, if 
endued with this power of the Spirit, will accomplish 
far more in promoting God’s Kingdom on earth, than 
the most talented and cultivated individual—earnest 
Christian though he may be—will be able to accomplish, 
without this enduement. 

Whoever receives Christ’s baptism, receives with it the 
enduement of power ; but this power may be very differ- 
ent in degree in different cases. It is sufficient for the 
work to which each individual is called. It does not 
make prophets or apostles, Isaiahs or Pauls, of all, but 
simply qualifies each for his allotted service. Nor is it 
always present to the consciousness, as a great reservoir 
of power laid up for every emergency. It exists, it is 
true—though more or less latent—in every Holy-Ghost- 
baptized believer, because the Spirit, who gives the 
power, and is the power, abideth in him; but often he 
1s conscious of nothing else so much as his own utter 
weakness, This feeling would indicate the very reverse 
of great power ; but when such an one is called upon to 
engage in any service for Christ, and enters upon it trust- 
ing in the Lord, then he finds the power supplied as he 


174 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


needs it. A man in health would scarcely know, from 
his consciousness, the amount of strength that lies quies- 
cent and unfe!t in his muscles; but, if he finds it need- 
ful to lift a hundred-pound weight, the latent force of 
his muscular system comes into active play, and he easily 
accomplishes his task. So it is also with the power of 
the Spirit. It is often present to the consciousness only 
when it needs to be exercised. 

And, surely, such an enduement of power 1s what the 
Church of Christ on earth, in our day, and its individual 
membership particularly need. The prophet Isaiah, 
looking forward to Gospel days, exclaims—‘A wake, 
awake, put on thy strength, O Zion! Put on thy 
beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city !—for 
henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncir- 
cumcised and the unclean.” 

And in what does the strength of Zion consist? Not 
in numbers, unless her membership be baptized and 
filled with the Spirit. The so-called Christian Church 
that stands ahead of all others, in the number of its ad- 
herents, is the Roman Catholic; and we should hardly 
admit that it is, also, the strongest body of Christians 
in spiritual strength. 

Nor does Zion’s strength consist in learning, nor in- 
tellectual gifts—highly important and useful as these 
are, when dedicated to the Lord and employed in His 
service. “It is not by might, nor by power (human 
power or might of any kind), but by my Spirit, saith 
the Lord of Hosts.” Possibly, it is to remind us con- 
stantly of this fact, that “God hath chosen the foolish 
things of this world to confound the wise; and God 
hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound 


ENDUED BY THE SPIRIT. 175 


the things which are mighty; and base things of the 
world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen ; 
yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things 
that are, that no flesh should glory in Eis presence.” 
The strength of Zion does not consist in money, nor in 
splendid houses of worship, nor in legal or ritualistic 
observances of any kind, nor in beautiful and artistic 
music, nor in the many useful and clever applances 
which are being used for the propagation of the Gospel. 

What, then, is the strength which Zion ig exhorted 
to put on? It is nothing less than the power of the 
Spirit, coming into the hearts of His children, sanctify- 
ing and energizing them for the service of Christ. 

The Church of Christ on earth has plenty of intellect, 
plenty of culture, plenty of money, plenty of machinery ; 
but these all need to be permeated and directed, and em- 
ployed under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Just as 
in @ large manufactory the machinery is inert and pow- 
erless until the steam is applied, but when that is done, 
works most beautifully and efficiently in the production 
of whatever fabric it is designed for; so the zeal, and 
talent, and energy, and wealth, and appliances of Christ’s 
Church are comparatively barren of results until they 
are manipulated by the power and wisdom of the in- 
dwelling Spirit. 

If God’s people would be the power in the earth that 
they are designed to be, they must march under the ban- 
ner of holiness. For every believer that is sanctified esit 
is estimated that from seven to ten sinners are converted, 
Zion’s “strength,” and her “beautiful garments,” are 
the same. Do we not find in the fact that the Church 
of Christ has, to so great an extent, failed to enter into 


176 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


the fulness of the blessing, and to receive the baptism 
with the Holy Ghost and the enduement of power, « 
reason for the tardy pace at which the glad tidings has 
been carried from nation to nation ? 

“Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, 
that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing 
of water by the word; that He might present it to Him- 
self, a glorious church—not having spot or wrinkle, or 
any such thing.” Such must be the Bride of Christ— 
spotless, pure, “arrayed in fine linen, which is the 
righteousness of saints.” 

And it is the business of the Church and its member- 
ship, now, as of old, first to tarry at Jerusalem till they 
are endued with power from on high, and then to go 
into all the world and preach the Gospel to every crea- 
ture. When Zion shall indeed thus awake, and put on 
her strength and her beautiful garments; when she shall 
shake herself from the dust of the earth—then she shall 
arise and shine; then she shall come up out of the wil- 
derness “leaning wpon her Beloved, clear as the sun, fair 
as the moon, terrible as an army with banners.” “ More- 
over the light of the moon shall be as the light of the 
sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the 
light of seven days.” 

The banner given her to be displayed because ot the 
truth, shall not be allowed to trail in the dust; but 
waving it aloft clear and bright, she shall be so attrac- 
tive that sons and daughters shall come to the brightnes, 
of her rising, from the north and the south, the east and 
the west, flocking “as doves to their windows.” Her 
holiness shall be her power. Her beauty shall be her 
strength. 


ENDUED BY THE SPIRIT. 177 


REMARKS. 


I 


The Enduement of Power results from Christ’s Bap- 
tism with the Holy Ghost. 


IT. 


It is the power to impress minds, and win souls to 


Christ. 
bit 


Tt is wholly independent of, and distinct from, oifts of 
learning and eloquence; but when added to such gifts, it 
imparts to them wonderful effectiveness. 


IV. 


The believer who has been baptized with the Holy 
Ghost, and abides in Christ, always has power sufficient 
for any service to which he may be called; because the 
Spirit within girds, and fills, and qualifies him at the 
needful time. But neither the power nor the presence 
of the Spirit is always manifest to his consciousness. 


Vv. 


The individual believer needs the enduement of power 
to qualify him for his life-work in the service of Christ; 
and the Church, as a whole, needs to have her various 
means and appliances energized by the Holy Ghost, in 
order to become vastly more successful in spreading the 
Redeemer’s kingdom. 

VI. 


“There are diversities of operations;” and whilst I 
have stated definitely and repeatedly that which I believe 
12 


178 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


to be the rule—viz., that sanctification and the endue-_ 
ment of power are received, in direct connection, with 
Christ’s baptism—yet, I wish also to remark, that so far, 
at least, as the consciousness of the individual is con- 
cerned, there are exceptions to this rule. A few days 
after his conversion, the late Charles G. Finney received 
what he calls a baptism with the Holy Ghost, which gave 
him at once, wonderful power in the awakening and con- 
version of sinners; but his sanctification did not occur 
r—or at least was not a conscious experience—till many 
years later. On the other hand, Dr. Mahan teaches that 
the Holy Spirit, having first builded us for a habitation 
of God, at our conversion, then proceeds with a process 
of preparation and sanctification—which is more or less 
gradual, but need not be long—and when this is completed, 
if we are consecrated, and inquiring of Him to do it for 
us, God takes possession of the temple, in His glory and 
His power, by the baptism with the Holy Ghost. 

In some instances, therefore, it would seem that the 
power precedes the cleansing—and in others the cleans- 
ing precedes the power—while in the great majority both 
are received at the same time, as the immediate result of 
Christ’s baptism. 


CELA BMA RS: ox 
INDWELT BY THE SPIRIT. 


HEN Jesus was about to be taken away from 

His sorrowing disciples, He promised that after 
His departure, the Father would send them, in His 
name, another Comforter, who should abide with them 
forever. He expressly told them that this Comforter 
should be the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit of truth, who 
was even then dwelling with them, and should be in 
them. 

And we cannot doubt that the Comforter of whom Le 
spake, did come into their hearts on the day of Pente- 
cost—purifying and enduing them; and that He did 
abide in them the remainder of their lives. His incom- 
ing was accompanied by certain miraculous phenomena, 
manifest to the observation of all present, and to the 
wondering multitude; but the essential and important 
thing was the incoming itself. 

It was because they were possessed and filled by the 
Holy Ghost, that they spake with tongues and magnified 
God, and preached the Word with such power that 
thousands were convicted and converted. The purifying 
of their hearts by faith was accomplished then, and after- 
wards they experienced a continuous cleansing. The 
enduement of power was conferred upon them then, and 
was a permanent enduement. 


But what does Jesus tell them about the offices of the 
179 


180 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


Comforter, as He was to dwell in their purified and en- 
ergized hearts during their earthly pilgrimage? In 
other words, what does the Holy Spirit do in the heart 
of the believer with whom He abides forever ? 

In answering this question, I remark, in the first 
place, that Jesus does not here make mention of any 
remarkable or miraculous gifts which the Spirit was to 
confer upon the disciples. 

I have spoken in another place of the miracle-working 
power imparted in apostolic times to one individual in 
particular, to another in another, and withheld alto- 
gether, in all probability, from a very large majority; 
but the Spirit dwelling in the heart of a Christian can- 
not, and will not, be inoperative; and there are certain 
offices which, as an in-dwelling Comforter, He will dis- 
charge with greater or less power and distinctness in all. — 

And the first office that the Saviour designates as be- 
longing to the abiding Holy Ghost is that of Teacher 
and Remembrancer, “ He shall teach you all things, 
and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I 
have said unto you.” Nothing is more clearly stated in 
Old Testament Scripture than that in the gospel days 
the Lord shall teach His children Himself. “And all 
thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall 
be the peace of thy children.” And the Apostle John 
speaks of the “anointing which abideth and teacheth,” 
doubtless designating by that term the Holy Spirit 
dwelling in the heart of the sanctified believer and 
teaching him. 

For we must not fail to remember that it is “ the chis- 
dren of the Lord,” those who have been adopted into 
the family through faith in Christ, who are to be taught 


INDWELT BY THE SPIRIT, 181 


of the Lord. It is the sheep who hear the voice of the 
Good Shepherd, and know Him, and follow Him. 

Of the very in-dwelling Comforter in regard tu whom 
we are now inquiring, Jesus Himself saith that the world 
—the unconverted world—‘“seeth Him not, neither 
knoweth Him.” And we are told expressly that “the 
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : 
they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, 
because they are spiritually discerned.” 

In reference to heathen nations and those who have no 
outward knowledge of the Gospel, I have no doubt that 
God will deal with them both in strict justice and great 
mercy, and so many of them as are saved will be found 
to owe their salvation, as do others, to the Lord Jesus 
Christ. And, as I am not writing for the heathen, I 
leave them there, commending them with myself and all 
to the merciful disposal of an all-wise and all-gracious 
Heavenly Father. | 

The in-dwelling Spirit, then, is a teacher; and, like 
Jesus Himself, He teaches as never man taught. He 
may, and often does, teach directly, by an impression 
communicated either supernaturally or through the or- 
dinary operations of the intellect to the understanding ; 
but in a larger number of instances, perhaps, His teach- 
ing is by instrumental means, and these we must neither 
ignore nor undervalue. 

And here again the most important instrumentality 
which the Holy Spirit employs for the teaching of God’s 
people is the Bible. The Scriptures “are profitable,” 
with other things, “‘ for instruction in righteousness, that 
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto 
all good works.” 


182 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


How often does a text of Scripture which we may 
have read scores of times without receiving any marked 
impression, become a rich feast to the soul, as the light 
of the Holy Spirit shines like a sunbeam upon it. How 
often does the whole Bible become a new book when we 
read it again and again under the illumination of that 
blessed Spirit who gave it forth. It is as if the author 
of a book were sitting by your side, when you peruse it, 
ready to explain all your difficulties, and solve all your 
doubts. 

Let no one, therefore, fail to search the Scriptures. 
It is a dangerous error to neglect, or reject, or ignore the 
teachings of the Holy Bible on the pretext, however 
plausible, that the inward teachings of the Spirit are 
more valuable than the outward letter. It will always 
be found that those who love God most loye His Bible 
most. He who is taught by Scripture is taught of the 
Lord ; and it is never by the Holy Spirit that any one is 
induced to desert the outward revelation written by holy 
men whom He inspired. 

Another agency of very great importance, which the 
Holy Spirit employs for teaching God’s people, is the 
ministry of the Gospel. In every age of the Church, 
the Lord has given to it men and women whose calling 
and qualification were to speak unto their fellow-believers 
for “exhortation, edification, and comfort.” 

There have not only been evangelists who might 
preach the glad tidings of the Gospel to sinners, and in- 
vite them to come to Christ, but pastors and teachers who 
should labor for the perfecting of the saints, and the ed- 
ifying of the body of Christ. The apostles and prophets 
being dead yet speak in the Scriptures, of which they 


INDWELT BY THE SPIRIT. 183 
were the inspired authors; and the Spirit still teaches 
the Church by conferring the gift of teaching upon some 
of its members, and strengthening them to exercise it. 

Not that the same degree of inspiration is given to any 
now, as was conferred upon the authors ot the Scriptures, 
Not that any one is authorized now to proclaim new doc- 
trines, 7. e., such as ave not found in the Scriptures, or 
clearly deducible therefrom. But the ministry is still a 
gift, and when exercised in the demonstration of the 
Spirit and of power, it will always be in accordance with 
the Scriptures, and reaching the witness in the hearts of 
believers, it becomes, through grace, a very valuable 
means of instructing them in the right way of the Lord. 

And we should receive with thankfulness and child- 
like docility, the teaching of even the humblest instru- 
ment whom the Spirit condescends to employ. How 
wondrous is the privilege of enjoying His instructions— 
of being taught by Him, whether mediately or immedi- 
ately, directly or instrumentally ! 

Another thing that the Saviour promised the Com- 
forter should do, was to guide the disciples into all truth. 
Guidance is one form of teaching. It is teaching us 
the right course to pursue. It is showing us what our 
duty is. 

Divine guidance is distinctly promised both in the Old 
Testament and the New, and has been the experience of 
the saints in all ages. The following quotations are a 
sufficient proof :—“ I will instruct thee and teach thee in 
the way which thou shalt go, I will guide thee with mine 
eye.” “The steps of a good man are ordered of the 
Lord, and he delighteth in His way.” “The meek will 
He guide in judgment, and the meek will He teach His 


184 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


way.” “ He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth 
them out.” “Tf any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of 
God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not ; 
and it shall be given him.” “These are they that follow 
the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” 

And yet it must be confessed that it is often one of the 
greatest difficulties which beset the Christian’s path, to 
ascertain, to his own entire satisfaction, what God’s will 
is concerning him, in the particular circumstances by 
which he is surrounded. A few observations may pos- 
sibly throw some light, both on the cause of this diffi- 
culty and the remedy. 

In order to secure the Divine guidance in our daily 
life—both secular and religious—our minds must be 
brought into a proper condition for receiving it. And, 
in the first place, we must sincerely desire to be guided 
aright. God is always willing to supply all our real 
need in Christ Jesus; but it is the longing soul that He 
satisfies—it is the hungry soul that He fills with His 
goodness. 

And, as we need guidance continually—moment by 
moment, and day by day—so the desire for it needs to 
be permanent and intense; and David’s prayer will fre- 
quently be adopted by the humble disciple—“ For Thy 
name’s sake, O Lord, lead me, and guide me;” or, 
“Tead me ina plain path, because of mine enemies ;” 
whether these be outward enemies, such as David had, 
or the enemies of our souls, within. 

Tn the next place, we must believe that, since God has 
so distinctly promised us His guidance, therefore, when we 
utter such prayers as the above, we are asking according 
to His will, and that He heareth us, and that we have the 


INDWELT BY THE SPIRIT. 185 


petitions that we desired of Him. We must honor Him 
by believing in Iis veracity, and His faithfulness to 
His own promises, Without faith it is impossible to 
please God. 

And, it is by faith that we must receive our answer to 
the prayer for guidance, as well as the answers to prayers 
for other things. Let me explain. It often happens 
that after praying earnestly to be guided aright in a diffi- 
cult case, we do not feel at all differently, nor see our 
way any more clearly than before, and yet the time comes 
when we must decide what to do. We hear, it may be, 
no voice saying, ‘This is the way, walk ye in it;” and, 
so far as any sensations that we may have are concerned, 
we may seem to be left as much in the dark as if we had 
not prayed at all. 

Under these circumstances our only resource is in faith. 
We have come to God with a sincere desire and purpose, 
to be directed aright, and to be guided by His will. We 
have asked Him to lead us as He has promised; and 
now, deciding upon the matter before us with the best 
judgment we have, we are bound to believe that we have 
the petitions that we desire; that God does guide us; and 
that our decision 7s according to His will; and, therefore, 
in child-like confidence, we should leave our case in the 
hands of our Father. We are to believe that He has 
decided our course; though He may not have commu- 
nicated His decision to our sight, but only to our faith. 

The proper exercise of faith in seeking Divine guid- 
ance, implies the restraining and subordinating of all 
undue eagerness and activity of our own. I do not 
mean that we are not to act, nor that we are not to use, 
to the best of our ability, our own perceptions and judg- 


186 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


ments in determining the question, whatever it may be; 
but, having come to God, asking and seeking His guid- 
ance, we are not still to cherish a determination to guide 
ourselves, nor to give way to restless anxiety, which in- 
dicates an unsubdued will and a want of faith in God. 
We have committed our way unto Him, and now we 
must trust in Him, that He will bring to pass that which 
He knows will be best for us. To sincerely desire His 
guidance, is to desire that we may adopt His plans ; and 
not that He may adopt our plans. Our Heavenly 
Father commuicates His will to us, (1) By the Serip- 
tures. (2) By His Holy Spirit. (8) By His Providences. 
By carefully interpreting the intimations received through 
these channels singly, or in connection with each other, 
the Christian will, to say the least, very generally 
perhaps, I might venture to say always—be preserved 
from serious error in reference to his conduct and pur- 
suits. 

In the first place, any one who is sincerely desirous to 
know God’s will as to his general course of life, must 
not neglect to obey the Saviour’s injunction, “ Search the 
Scriptures.” And we must not only diligently search 
them, but we must be willing to bow to their authority. 
Wherever the will of God is clearly revealed in the Bi- 
ble in reference to any subject, our duty in regard to that 
subject is determined. And we are not to expect an in- 
ward revelation in addition to the outward one to show 


and, 


us what to do. 

If Jesus says “Do not kill, do not steal, do not bear 
false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother,” 
we do not need any other revelation to instruct us as to 
our duty in these particulars. 


INDWELT BY THE SPIRIT. ike; 


And the Scriptures do go into more detailed directions 
than we should imagine, until we acquaint ourselves 
thoroughly with them. If the Christian lady wishes to 
know how she may dress so as to please God, she finds 
that women are “ to adorn themselves in modest apparel ;” 
and, although the standard of modest apparel might be 
different in different localities, and with varying circum- 
stances, yet, with God’s providence and the Holy Spirit 
to assist the sincere inquirer in determining, I think few 
would be left long in doubt. 

If we want to know what kind of talk is acceptable to 
God, we read (1) that we are to let no corrupt commu- 
nication proceed out of our mouth, nor any foolish talk- 
ing, and (2) that our talk ought to be good “ to the use 
of edifying.” 

If we are in doubt how to treat our enemies and those 
who have injured us, we are told explicitly, ‘ Love your 
enemies,” “ Pray for them that despitefully use you,” 
“Avenge not yourselves.” And if our civil or per- 
sonal rights are invaded, we are asked, “‘ Why do ye not 
rather suffer wrong than go to law?” and told that 
charity, which is perfect love, “seeketh not her own.” 
And the universal duty of Christians when praying is, 
“TYorgive, if ye have aught against any man.” 

If we want to understand our obligations to the civil 
magistrates and rulers, we are told to honor them, to 
obey them in all things, not in conflict with our duty to 
the King of kings, to pray for them, and to pay tribute 
to them, 

If we are at a loss as to how far we may join in the 
pleasures and customs of the world, we are enjoined not 
to be conformed to the world, and assured that “if any 


188 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


man love the world, the love of the Father is not in 
him.” 

It is to the written revelation of God’s will, then, that 
we are first to look for the knowledge of our Christian 
duties, as well as the knowledge of the way of salvation. 

But there are still many questions arising in our daily 
life—questions of propriety and duty about which we 
find no directions in Scripture, and the deciding of which 
often causes us no little perplexity. It is in reference 
to these matters that we are to seek and expect the direct 
guidance of the Holy Spirit. He either makes extraor- 
dintary impressions on the mind with more or less dis- 
tinctness, or He influences the understanding and the 
will by an unconscious and imperceptible operation so as 
to bring about the right decision. 

The instances are by no means few, in which God’s 
children have been induced, by feeling and impulses 
wholly inexplicable to themselves at the time, to adopt 
measures, which resulted in their deliverance from dan- 
ger, the prevention of disasters to themselves, their fami- 
lies, or their business, and the successful accomplishment 
of formidable undertakings. And a blessed thing it is, 
indeed, to know the voice of the Spirit, to listen obedi- 
ently to His gentlest intimations, and to make the Lord 
our Counsellor in things temporal as well as in things 
spiritual. | 

But not all the impulses and intimations that come 
into our minds are from the Holy Spirit. Satan also can 
originate impressions, and is transformed into an angel 
of light. Thus, as we are to interpret the Bible in the 
light of the Holy Spirit, so we are to interpret inward 
impressions upon the mind by comparing them with 


INDWELT BY THE SPIRIT. 189 


Scripture truth, with sound reason, and with the out- 
ward providences of God. 

As the Scriptures were given by inspiration and dic- 
tated by the Holy Spirit, any impression claiming to be 
revelation from God, which is contrary to the Scriptures, 
must be rejected as a delusion. The Holy Ghost will 
not contradict Himself. As sound reason, also, or a 
sanctified judgment, is the gift of God, nothing that is 
really from His Spirit will be contrary to such judgment, 
although it may be quite beyond it. 

In the daily events of our lives we are to look for and 
to see the providences of God. Everything that takes 
place, with the sole exception of sin, is either permis- 
sively or causatively His will. And sin itself is per- 
missively providential. In other words, there would be 
no sin if God did not permit it, although He is never 
the author of sin. In everything that happens to us, 
then, God is present. And our daily lives are made up 
of what we are bound to regard as providential events; 
and we are to meet God where He meets us, and allow 
Him to guide us by His providence as well as by His 
Spirit and His Bible. 

As there is an exact and mutual correspondence be- 
tween the power of vision and the phenomena of light 
and color, between the power of hearing and the phe- 
nomena of sound, between the sense of touch and -the 
material forms which are presented to it for recognition, 
so there is a precise adaptation of the providences of God 
without, and the intimations of His Spirit within. Both 
are expressions of His will, and each will be found to 
illustrate and interpret the other. And so we often hear 
Christians say, in effect, that “way opens’ to do certain 


190 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


things, which they regard as right to be done, the mean- 
ing being that inward impressions of duty, made on the 
mind by the Holy Spirit, are confirmed by outward 
providences so shaping events as to facilitate the per- 
formance of the duty. 

The earnest desire to be guided aright implies willing- 
ness on our part to obey the intimations of God’s will, 
however received. Whilst there must be no eager im- 
petuosity, which always indicates that self-will is still 
alive, there must be a constant seeking to know the 
mind of Christ, and a prompt and diligent obedience to 
His will, which are the reverse of slothfulness or care- 
lessness. We must wait upon the Lord in the true spirit 
of a servant, watching to receive His commands, and 
ever ready to execute them, and then to say, “ What 
next wilt Thou have me to do?” Every moment meets 
us with a duty to be done, ora suffering to be borne, some 
active service, or some silent waiting; and let us have a 
spirit earnest while quiet, an eye watchful but restful, an 
ear attentive but patient, and move or be still as “the 
love of Christ constraineth us.” 

Another office of the in-dwelling Comforter is to bring 
to remembrance the words of the Saviour, which He may 
do when we are engaged in silent contemplation or 
about our needful avocations, or He may, as already 
stated, impress them with new life and power upon our 
hearts as we read them, “ He shall bring all things to 
your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” 
“Tle shall glorify me, for He shall receive of mine, and 
shall show it unto you.” He shall testify of me.” 
“Tle shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He 
shall hear that shall He speak.” 


INDWELT BY THE SPIRIT. 191 


The power of the Spirit has been treated of in a pre- 
vious chapter, and He, dwelling in the heart of the be- 
liever as a constant strengthener, supports him in every 
time of weakness, and guides him for every required 
service. Paul prays for the Ephesians, that they “may 
be strengthened with might, by His Spirit, in the inner 
man ;” and it was doubtless through Him that he ex- 
pected his other petitions to be realized, 7. e., that their 
comprehension might be so enlarged, that they might 
comprehend the solid contents of God’s love; and their 
knowledge so increased that they might know the love of 
Christ which passeth (human) knowledge, and be filled 
with the fulness of God. 

Finally ; the designation, Comforter, applied by the 
Saviour Himself to the in-dwelling Spirit, expresses one 
of the most precious of His offices. He dwells in the 
heart of the sanctified believer; and with Him, the 
Father and the Son. Thus He keeps the soul in com- 
munion and fellowship with the “God of all comfort.” 
“Truly,” says the Apostle, “our fellowship is with the 
Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” 

He comforts those in whom He abides, in all their 
tribulation. He causes consolation to abound by Christ. 
Fle gives them to eat of the Hidden Manna. He brings 
to pass, that, out of their deepest sorrow, shall well up 
their richest, and fullest, and most permanent consolations, 
“Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned 
into joy.” ‘The sorrow shall be transitory, even if it 
continue a life-time; the joy shall be everlasting. From 
God, in Christ, by the Holy Spirit, we have “everlast- 
Ing consolation, and good hope through grace.” 


192 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
REMARKS, 


qe 


The offices of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the sanc- 
tified believer are totally different from His work in 
convicting and converting the sinner, by leading him to 
repent and believe in Jesus. 


iB 


These offices are distinct, also, from His work in the 
justified believer—showing him his heart-sin, and lead- 
ing him to seek a clean heart, by entire consecration and 
faith in Christ. 


j OR 


The Spirit witnesseth:—In the justified, to his 
adoption; in the sanctified, to his cleansing ; in all, to 
Christ. 

IV. 


When the Holy Ghost has taken possession of the 
heart, and dwells there as an abiding guest, He operates 
as a Teacher, a Guide, a Remembrancer, a Glorifier of, 
and Testifier to, Christ; a Strengthener, and a Com- 
forter. 


Vv. 


The in-dwelling Comforter teaches and guides the be- 
liever ; either directly—by impressions, made perceptibly 
or imperceptibly upon the understanding and the will ; 
or, instrumentally—by the Holy Scriptures, the preaching 
of the Gospel, and the outward providences of God. 


INDWELT BY THE SPIRIT. 193 
VI. 


If our Heavenly Father has clearly revealed His will 
by the written word, in reference to any point, we are 
not to expect another revelation from His Spirit to teach 
us our duty in that regard. 


Vil. 


When God’s will has not been thus revealed, we are 
authorized and enjoined to seek His guidance, and to 
claim His promise that we shall have it: 


ViLLLS 


Impressions of truth and duty, are not to be regarded 
as coming from the Holy Spirit, if they are contrary to 
Scripture, to a sanctified judgment, or to the outward 
providences of God, 

IX, 


Tt is by faith that Christ, or the Holy Spirit, dwells 
in the heart. And we should seek for that form of faith 
that sees God’s hand in everything—permitting or caue- 
ing all that happens to us. : 


CHAPTER XI. 


PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT. 


OTHING is more positively inculeated in the 

Holy Scriptures, both by precept and practice, 

than the duty of prayer. Nor is there any law of na- 

ture more universal in its application than that which 

impels all men in times of great danger or emergency, to 

pray to some superior being, known or unknown, for 
aid. 

The man Christ Jesus was not only a man of sorrows ; 
but a man of prayer. Not many prayers of His have been 
transmitted, it is trué, and these few are generally very 
short ; but we are told, nevertheless, that “ He went up 
into a mountain and prayed ;” that “ He withdrew from 
the multitude and prayed ;” and that His prayers were 
sometimes protracted ones, we may infer from at least 
one instance in which “ He continued all night in prayer 
to God.” Taking upon Him the form of a servant, ex- 
hausted by His labors for others, which through the day 
were so pressing that He sometimes had no leisure even 
to eat bread, it was indeed true of Him, that 


“Cold mountains and the midnight air, 
Witnessed the fervor of His prayer.” 


The apostles, prophets, and holy men of old. were 
all mighty in prayer. As princes they had power with 
God and prevailed. And we have not the slightest 
reason to suppose that they ever doubted for a moment 
that they received blessings from God in answer to their 

194 


PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT. 195 


prayers ; which blessings they would not have received 
without the prayers. It was reserved for the scepticism 
of more modern times, to deny the real efficacy of prayer. 

And yet, this is a very mysterious subject! God is an 
unchangeable Being, “with whom is no variableness, 
neither shadow of turning.” How, then, can the peti- 
tions of His feeblest child avail to move that Almighty 
hand that moves the worlds? 

Some persons believe that the only influence of prayer 
is a subjective one, ¢. ¢., that it brings the individual into 
a humble receptive state of mind, suitable for the accept- 
ance of the blessings desired; or, that he is stimulated 
by prayer to increased exertion to secure the things he 
asks for, and thus to bring about the answers to his own 
prayers. And very much ingenuity has been expended 
in trying to prove the hopeless orphanage of our race, 
and bring discredit upon the simple truth that we have 
a Heavenly Father, to whom we may and ought to pray 
with the expectation of receiving definite answers to 
definite requests. 

In the first place, I remark, that there is no real in- 
compatibility between the unchangeableness of God, and 
His willingness to hear and answer prayer. The very 
conditions upon which He promises to give the things 
we need, is that we ask Him. When therefore we bring 
ourselves to the point of asking Him for the things we 
desire, and when we reccive them, it is not He that 
changes His mind, but we who change ours. We come 
to His terms, we comply with His conditions, and He 
does precisely what He has promised to do, without the 
slightest change of purpose. 

A father may say to his little boy, “ You shall have 


496 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


this orange if you ask for it in a proper manner.” But 
the child is obstinate and self-willed; he tries to obtain it 
without asking. Ile may say, perhaps, “ It is no good to 
ask ;” and by various means he may manage to deprive 
himself for a long time of the coveted fruit. But, when 
he comes to the prescribed terms; when he says— 
“ Please, father, give me the orange,” he at once obtains 
it. It is easy to see in this case that it is the child, and 
not the father, who changes his mind. 

It cannot be denied, however, that prayer—like every- 
thing else which God has instituted and prescribed—has 
its conditions, its laws, and its limitations. I cannot 
make request, selfishly and indiscriminately, for any 
blessing, real or supposed, which I may desire, and ex- 
pect to obtain it. I cannot say to the Lord—“Give me 
a hundred thousand pounds to-day ;” or ask Him for any- 
thing and everything which it might please me to have, 
and hope to receive it. 

This would be making God’s will subject to my own 
will, and would thus reverse that divine order which His 
omnipotence has established. ‘To pray, means to offer 
up petitions; not to make demands. And the very idea 
of a petition, recognizes the right, and the power, on the 
part of the sovereign to whom it is addressed, to grant 
or deny the things asked for, according to his own will. 
And so, all true prayer includes, whether by expression 
or implication, the words—“‘ Thy will, not mine, be 
done.” 

The first condition, then, upon which prayer is an- 
swered is, that it is according to God’s will. “If we ask 
anything according to His will, He heareth us.” The 
second condition is, that the prayer be accompanied by 


PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT. 197 


faith. “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in 
prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” The two conditions 
are intimately connected with each other, and both com- 
port entirely with the unchangeableness of God. Wecan 
only utter a believing prayer for things which are ac- 
cording to God’s will. And, to grant what is according 
to His will, involves on His part no change of purpose. 

But who are those to whom it is promised that they 
shall receive the things they ask for believingly and ac- 
cording to God’s will? Doubtless the children of God. 
There is one necessary thing for the unpardoned sinner 
to ask for first of all, and that is mercy and acceptance 
in Christ Jesus. 

And he may, if sincerely penitent and desirous of 
salvation, offer up his prayer for forgiveness with entire 
confidence that he shall be heard and accepted, because 
“God willeth not the death of a sinner.” 

Having thus become a child of God by faith in Jesus 
Christ, he will now find many things, both temporal and 
spiritual, about which he will need to seck his Heavenly 
Father’s counsel and aid during the remainder of his 
earthly pilgrimage. | 

Believers themselves, however, are often at a loss to 
know what things are according to God’s will, and what 
things, therefore, they may believingly ask for. Here, 
as elsewhere, they should first try to find a solution for 
their perplexities by searching the Scriptures, It may 
be laid down as an axiom that whatever our Heavenly 
Father has promised us in His word we may pray for, 
as we feel it to represent our own needs, 

If Jesus has said, “Him that cometh to me I will in 
no wise cast out,” that is sufficient ground for one who: 


198 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


has not found pardon, to ask and receive it. If the in- 
spired Apostle says, “This is the will of God, even your 
sanctification,” the Christian may, and ought to pray for 
sanctification. 

If the Saviour says, “ Ye shall be baptized with the 
Holy Ghost,” the believer may, and should, pray to be 
thus baptized. If we are told that Jesus carried our 
sorrows as well as our sins, we should, in prayer, give 
Him our sorrows as well as our sins. If we are told to 
cast all our care upon Him, because He careth for us, we 
should do that thing. If we are commanded to “ Re- 
joice evermore, pray without ceasing, and in everything 
give thanks,” we should pray for that state of mind and 
heart, in which God’s grace may enable us to do so. 

But I need not particularize further. Whatever we 
find in the precepts, the promises, or the prophecies of 
the Bible revealing or indicating God’s will and pur- 
poses toward us, will be, each on its fitting occasion, a 
proper subject for prayer, which we can offer believingly, 
knowing that He will hear us. 

And if He clearly shows, by His outward provi- 
dences, His plans, purposes, and wishes concerning us, 
there also is a basis on which we can pray in faith, 
having confidence that we have the petitions which we 
desire of Him. 

Now, the promises of God include all possible good to 
the believer—“ No good thing will He withhold from 
them that walk uprightly.” They exclude in like man- 
ner all possible evil—“There shall no evil befall 
thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” 
They take in also the supply of every spiritual and tem- 
poral need—“ My God shall supply all your need ac- 


PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT. ° 199 


cording to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” They 
recognize further, all events as providences coming from 
God and tending to the believer’s good— All things 
shall work together for good to them that love God.” 

Surely, no Christian could ask more for himself than 
that all real good should be given him, all real evil kept 
away from him, all his real needs of every kind supplied, 
and all his circumstances and surroundings to be promo- 
tive of his highest interest and happiness. 

But when we come to particularize and to inquire 
whether this or that specific thing is a real good, alas, 
we are brought face to face with our “ infirmities.” 

That which we esteem good may be in the eyes of 
Him who seeth all things as they are, just the reverse. 
And so of evil. Samuel with his prophetic wisdom did 
not see where real merit was, as the tall and goodly sons 
of Jesse passed before him. But he was told that the 
Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the 
outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. 
And it was upon the head of the shepherd stripling that 
the anointing oil was to be poured. 

You stand beside the dying bed of a Christian. Tears 
fall from mourning friends; lamentations fill the room. 
The struggle with the last enemy seems dreadful to you, 
and you can but say that a real evil and calamity are 
falling upon the family. 

But above all these tears and groans and sighs of sor- 
row, above the clouds that to your eyes seem so black and 
gloomy, is the eye of God beholding the same scene. 
And what does He see? A precious thing. “ Precious 
in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” 

And now, amid the perplexity arising out of our 


200 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


short-sightedness in reference to real good and evil, how 
blessed it is to know tl.at it is our privilege to have the 
intercessory offices of the Spirit Himself. The nature 
of this intercessory function of the Holy Spirit is de- 
scribed in the eighth of Romans. “ Likewise also the 
Spirit itself helpeth our infirmities; for we know not 
what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit 
itself maketh intercession for us with groanings that can- 
not be uttered ; and He that searcheth the hearts knoweth 
what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh inter- 
cession for the saints according to the will of God.” 

This is praying in the Holy Ghost. This is the true 
spirit of prayer, and true praying in the Spirit. What 
we do not know, the Holy Spirit does know. He knows 
what is real good and real evil for us. And He works 
upon the heart of the believer, begetting an earnest long- 
ing and groaning after those things which He knows to 
be a real good, and those things which He knows to be 
according to the will of God. Oh, that Christians 
everywhere knew what it is to have the Spirit within 
them, helping their infirmities, showing them what to 
pray for, and begetting within them unutterable groan- 
ings and fervent petitions for those things which are ac- 
cording to the mind of the Spirit ! 

And when the Spirit thus helps us in prayer He pro- 
duces also a corresponding faith, so that true spiritual 
prayer is always the prayer of faith, and brings the 
blessing down upon those that thus pray, because they 
ask believingly and must receive. 

The same Spirit who begets in the believer’s heart the 
_ groanings that cannot be uttered, and the faith that takes 
hold on God with a firm grasp for the thing asked for, 


PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT. 201 


also works either in the realm of nature or the realm of 
grace to bring about the answer to prayer. And the ob- 
taining or non-obtaining of answers to prayer does not 
depend at all upon the greatness or wondrousness of the 
things asked for, but rather upon the question whether 
or not the prayer and the corresponding faith have been 
begotten by the Holy Spirit. 

God is Almighty, and can do great things just as easily 
as small things. And the Church of Christ, with its in- 
dividual membership, needs to learn to trust Him more 
implicitly for great things as well as small, and for small 
things as well as great. He not only “ setteth up kings 
and putteth down kings, and turneth the hearts of kings 
as a man turneth the water-course in his field,” but He 
orders the momentary events in the daily life of His 
lowliest child as well. Oh, that we might all learn 
“what is that exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward 
who believe.” 

Sometimes the Holy Spirit secures the answer to a 
prayer, which Himself has inspired, by human agency. 
And, for this purpose, He may use either converted or 
unconverted men. Instances are not very rare in which 
one Christian man or woman has been impressed by feel- 
ings, not to be put aside, that it was right to visit some 
other Christian person ; and on so doing, has found the 
family in distress, and praying to God for relief; which 
has, in this manner, been sent them. 

In the following case a man, who was nota Christian, 
was used in a similar way :—A carter in the employ of 
a farmer in the south of England (both of them being 
ungodly men), had a praying, Christian wife. One day 
he was carried home to her with his leg broken by an 


202 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


accident. After the surgeon had adjusted the fractured 
limb, and she had done all she could for his comfort, she 
said to him: “Well, John, I have long prayed for your 
conversion, and that—if in no other way—even by suf- 
fering, your soul might be brought to God.” 

He was very angry, and accused her of praying that 
his leg might be broken. After a few days their means 
were exhausted. Saturday night came, and there was 
neither bread nor money in the house. “Now,” said 
the man reproachfully, “you have been praying that I 
might have to suffer ; you had better pray that we might 
have some food.” She kneeled down by the table, and 
continued half an hour in earnest prayer to God, be- 
seeching Him to supply their pressing wants. The door 
opened. The employer of the carter appeared; made 
some short remark to the effect that “he could not get 
Jack out of his mind this evening,” and, laying on the 
table the full amount of what the man’s wages would 
have been if he had been able to work, he disappeared. 
And not only the woman’s prayer for food was answered, 
but the prayer for the conversion of her husband as well; 
for he gave his heart to God, and accepted Christ as his 
Saviour. 

Sometimes the answer to the prayer is through the in- 
visible operation of the Spirit who dictates it—upon the 
human body, or upon the external world. Both Scrip- 
ture and experience testify to the truth, that “ the prayer 
of faith shall save the sick,” and if the true relation of 
the Spirit to our conditions and needs were understood, 
there would be no reason for discrediting the facts of 
“prayer-cure” on the one hand, nor of perplexity as to 
why it is not always, or more generally available, on the 
other. 


PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT. 203 


“Tt is appointed unto men once to die;” and it is 
certain that we cannot in our own will keep our friends 
from the fatal results of illness or accident. The point 
of limitation is precisely here. The Spirit knows when 
it is in accordance with the will of God that the sick 
should be restored in answer to the prayer of faith. He 
begets the earnest longings, the unutterable groanings, 
the fervent petitions, the living faith, in the heart and 
en the lips of some Christian believer, and then, by His 
own divine energy, He invisibly operates upon the body 
of the diseased person, and restores him to health. Tt 
is the prayers, and those only which are Inspired by 
Himself, that are also answered by Himself. 

Tt does not follow that the recovery would have taken 
place without the prayer, any more than in other caség 
recovery would take place without the medicine ; which, 
the physician justly assures us, saved the patient’s life. 
Nor does it follow that God’s will or purpose has been 
changed in the least. He makes the prayer of faith the 
condition of recovery in one case. He makes medicinal 
remedies the condition of recovery in another case. The 
condition is fulfilled. His will is accomplished, and no 
law is violated in one case, any more than the other. 

Nor is there any inconsistency in asserting that the 
two methods of cure may be combined. Christian phy- 
sicians, as I know by my own experience, are sometimes 
led earnestly to pray that God’s blessing may rest upon 
the means they employ for the recovery of their patients. 
And I quite deny that there is any absurdity in suppos- 
ing that He who gives to the animal, vegetable, and 
mineral productions of nature their medicinal qualities, 
may impart to them a special efficacy in particular cases, 


204 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


in answer to believing prayer. The Spirit that produces 
the prayer, confers also peculiar potentiality upon the 
means employed. 

The following account is quoted from the Memoirs of 
Stephen Grellet, Vol. I, p. 275:—‘After one of these 
opportunities, Lavater, a physician—brother to the late 
Lavater—told me, ‘I have great reason for being fully 
convinced of these great and important truths that you 
have delivered. Once, I did not believe in them, and 
even ridiculed them; but the Lord was pleased to con- 
vince me of their reality in the following manner: My 
son, my only son, was very ill; I had exerted all my 
medical skill upon him in vain, when, in my distress, I 
wandered out into the street, and seeing the people going 
to the church, where my brother Lavater was to preach, 
IT went also. He began with that very text that you 
have mentioned—* Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, 
believing, it shall be done unto you.” He dwelt very 
particularly on the nature of prayer—in whose name, 
and to whom it is to be offered. He described, also, the 
efficacy of that faith which is to be the clothing of the 
poor supplicants. I attended very closely to what my 
brother said, and I thought I would now try if it was 
indeed so; for my solicitude for the recovery of my son 
was great. My prayer for it was earnest. I thought, 
also, that I believed the Lord Jesus had all power to 
heal him if He would. 

““* Now,’ said he, ‘in my folly I dared to limit the 
Almighty to three days, concluding that by this I should 
know that He was indeed a God hearing prayer, if my 
son was restored within that time. After such a daring 
act, all my skill as a physician seemed to be taken away 


PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT, 205 


from me. I went about, looking at my watch to see 
how the time passed, then at my son, whom I saw grow- 
ing worse, but not a thought to minister anything to 
him arose. The three days had nearly passed away, 
when, with an increase of anguish and also a sense of 
the Lord’s power, I cried out, “I believe, O Lord, that 
Thou canst do all this for me. Help Thou my unbelief ;” 
on which, some of the most simple things presented to 
me to administer to my son—so simple that at any other 
time I should have scorned them. Yet, believing it was 
of the Lord, I administered them, and my son immedi- 
ately recovered,’ ‘Now,’ said the doctor, ‘TI felt fully 
convinced that the Lord heareth prayer, and that there 
is an influence of the Spirit of God on the mind of man, 
for I have felt it.’ He added, ‘To this day I feel 
ashamed of myself, that I, a poor worm, should have 
dared to prescribe limits to the Lord, and wonder how, 
in His boundless mercy, He should have condescended, 
notwithstanding my darkness, to hear me.’ These are 
very nearly the words of the doctor. They were ac- 
companied with brokenness of spirit.” 

Nothing is more clearly revealed in Scripture than 
that the Lord controls the operations of nature in such 
a way as to promote or to prevent the production of such 
crops as are necessary for human sustenance. It is He 
that sendeth the rain and He that withholdeth it, if the 
plain declarations of the Bible are of any value. 

He may, and does, employ second causes, but He is 
not dependent on them, nor subject to them. They are 
His servants, not His masters. The prophet calls upon 
Israel to pray to the Lord about the weather—a thing 
which is nuw regarded by many Christians as absurd. 


206 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


“ Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain, so 
the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers 
of rain.” Let the meteorologist explain the rains and 
the droughts as he may, z is the Lord that does it. 

Now, as a rule, no doubt, it is very well to Jeave the 
weather in the Lord’s hands, with full confidence that 
He will still “cause His sun to rise on the evil and on 
the good, and send rain upon the just and upon the un- 
just.” Bat if the Holy Spirit begets in Christian hearts 
the true spirit of prayer in reference to the weather, 
whether it be in times of drought and famine, of storms 
and floods, or on more ordinary occasions, then the Holy 
Spirit also is ready to exert His divine power in bring- 
ing about the answer to the prayer. There “ He also 
maketh intercession for us according to the will of God,” 
and the result is sure. 

Now it is very plain that this kind of prayer is not in 
our own wills. 

Most certainly, in reference to the healing of the sick, 
and in reference to rain and sunshine, “we know not 
what to pray for as we ought.” And the thing for the 
believer to do is to leave his heart in God’s hands, to 
watch carefully the gentlest intimations of His Spirit, 
and when, and only when, He worketh in him the 
prayer and the faith, then give place to it, then utter it, 
and then realize that according to his faith it is unto 
him, 

Sometimes, again, the prayer is for deliverance from 
some besetting sin or some enslaving habit. Here the 
Holy Spirit begets an earnest longing for deliverance, 
and the prayer of faith (which is also as availing in 
these instances as in those already mentioned) and the 


PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT. ZAG 


answer may come just as suddenly. Jesus came to save 
His people from their sins, “to redeem them from their 
iniquity, and to purify them unto Himself.” Why 
should any Christian hesitate to accept Him as a present 
Saviour from all sin? 

A little boy of five or six years, residing in the city of 
London, was possessed of a most irascible and ungovern- 
able temper. In his fits of rage he would k*ck, scratch, 
bite, and in every way resist the efforts of his governess 
to secure his obedience. One day, having left him to sit 
alone in a room after one of his ebullitions of anger, she 
observed that he was quite silent for a time. Then 
coming to her with tears, he besought her forgiveness 
for his naughtiness, and observed, very firmly, “I shall 
not get angry again.” 

The governess inquired why he said so. “ Why,” said 
he, “I have been talking to Jesus about it, and He has 
promised to keep me from sinning again, and He will do 
iw.” ‘The child had, probably, often prayed before that 
he might not get angry; but now he had uttered, under 
the influence of the Spirit, the true prayer of faith. He 
believed that Jesus would save him. The testimony of 
the governess, six years after these occurrences, was that 
she had never seen him angry since. I had this story 
from a prominent minister of Christ, now in London. 

A Nonconformist minister of the city of London, was 
exceedingly fond of smoking. After a time, he became 
dissatisfied with this habit. He enjoyed it, but he 
thought God’s will was against it. He continued the 
indulgence, though mentally uneasy, and he found that 
it lessened the sense of God’s presence and favor. He 
hesitated as to his course, not wishing to make too much 


208 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


of what might seem to many a harmless habit. On 
one occasion, however, when a friend had presented him 
with some excellent tobacco of special qualities, he 
pushed aside his qualms and shut himself in his own 
room for the enjoyment of his favorite indulgence. He 
was, then and there, whilst smoking, clearly impressed 
with the conviction that the habit for him was wrong in 
the sight of God. He put his pipe aside, knelt in 
prayer, and gave himself in a definite act of consecration, 
to God. He asked that, if smoking were wrong for 
him, his taste for tobacco might be taken away. He 
rose; and his testimony was, and is, that the taste, once 
So very strong, was taken away, and has not returned— 
the period being from May, 1875, to January, 1878. 

Not scores only, but hundreds of well-authenticated 
cases could be collected, if pains were taken for the pur-— 
pose, in which the appetite for strong drink has been at 
once and permanently removed, in answer to believing 
prayer. Comment is needless, | 

Finally, the prayer of faith, begotten by the Holy 
Spirit with groanings that cannot be uttered, is available 
for the conversion of sinners, and for bringing varied 
blessings upon believers. The Spirit works upon one 
Christian’s heart, producing an earnest longing and sin- 
cere petition that some soul may be saved, or that some 
neighborhood may be visited by a revival of religion, 
begetting a corresponding faith also, so that the prayer 
is uttered believingly. He next directs His omnipotent 
energy toward the hearts of those who are prayed for, 
and, convincing them of sin, turns them effectually to 
Christ, thus securing the answer to the prayer which 
Himself has originated ; 


PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT. 209 


And in these instances, as well as others, there is 
especial power in united prayer. “If two of you shall 
agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, 
it shall be done for them of my Father who is in 
Heaven.” 

The following was related to me by the gentleman 
who was the subject of it. He was, and still is, a phy- 
siclan In active practice, in one of the interior towns of 
America. He was an ungodly man. At the time of a 
revival of religion in the town a number of ladies met, 
by agreement, at a certain time, to pray specially for the 
conversion of this individual. He of course knew 
nothing of it. But in the afternoon, and at the very 
hour while they were praying, he told me that while 
engaged in his professional visits, a strange, unaccount- 
able feeling of panic came over him. ‘The feeling was 
indescribable, but consisted in part of fear mixed with 
deep distress of mind. 

This mental trouble, which was to him astonishing, 
grew and increased. He went home, examined himself 
as to his physical health, felt his pulse, looked at his 
tongue in a mirror, but could not find anything amiss 
with his bodily functions. The anxiety and uneasiness 
of mind continued, however, until he found peace, where 
only it is to be found in its fulness, by accepting free 
mercy and pardon in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

When revivals of religion have occurred in different 
communities, which revivals are by no means to be con- 
temned or underrated, for it is in times of religious 
awakening like these that the majority of Christians 
have been converted, it will, perhaps, always be found 
on inquiry, that some one, or two, or more Christian be- 

14 


210 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, 


lievers, men or women, or even children, have been 
praying especially that the Lord would revive His work 
among them. And the Spirit who moves upon their 
hearts thus to pray, moves also upon the hearts of the 
people, bringing them to Christ, and fulfilling their 
petitions. 

A Christian lady has sent me the following anecdote, 
which occurred in her own experience: 


“On one occasion, while engaged in ordinary duties, 
my mind was arrested by a feeling of intense sympathy 
with one of my dear suffering friends; as if she was 
then passing through extraordinary trial. So strong did 
it become, that I was constrained to retire to my own 
room, and pour out my heart more freely in prayer for 
her, accompanied by ‘strong cryings and tears,’ under a 
sense of her condition. While thus pleading, the thought 
struck me—‘Could I not send her a telegram by way of 
Heaven?’ and, in full faith, I asked the Lord to bring 
this passage to her mind, ‘As one whom his mother com- 
forteth, so will Z comfort you’—with the power of the 
Holy Spirit. Ina few days I received a letter from her, 
in which she told me that she had been passing through 
extreme trial, but that about 7 o’clock, on such a day— 
the very day and hour in which the telegram was sent 
—that passage was so brought home to her, that her 
soul was sweetly calmed, and her mourning was ended 
—‘Ag one whom his mother comforteth, so will I com- 
fort you.” 


It is always to be gratefully remembered, that the Sa- 
viour, who prayed for His people when He was on earth, 


PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT. 21. 


still ever liveth to make intercession for them in Heaven. 
It is only as He presents our petitions, with His own, 
before the throne of God, that they can find acceptance 
with the Father. All prayer, therefore, should be of- 
fered in the name of Jesus, and for His sake, 

And, I believe, it is both in accordance with Scrip- 
ture, and, in some cases, eminently proper, to address 
prayer directly to Christ Himself. It was continually 
done, when He was personally on earth, by those who 
had need of healing. It was done by the dying thief, 
with acceptance, It was done by the martyr, Stephen, 
as he sealed his testimony with his blood. 

And those who are under conviction for sin, need 
oftentimes to get rid of a certain prejudice they may have 
had against recognizing Jesus Christ as God. This they 
effectually do, when they pray to Him directly, as one 
who still has power on earth to forgive sins. Little 
children, also, may often—now as of old—be brought 
directly to Christ, and taught to pray to Him, we can- 
not doubt, with entire acceptance. 

And, as the Holy Spirit is one with the Father and 
the Son—and, therefore, God—it cannot be regarded as 
wrong, or always inappropriate, as it seems to me, to 
address prayer to Him. We may pray to the Father to 
give us the Holy Spirit; we may pray to the Son to bap- 
tize us with the Holy Spirit; we may pray to the Holy 
Spirit Himself to come and abide in our hearts. But, 
for Christian believers, the general rule, I think, should 
be to make our requests to the Father, in the name of the 


Son. 


912 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


REMARKS. 


ib 


It may be regarded as an universal instinct of man- 
kind to pray to some superior Power in times of distress 
and danger. 

Il. 


It is the imperative duty of every Christian to pray 
to God. 


Ill. 


The teaching of the Bible, and of experience, agree 
in establishing the fact that blessings, both temporal and 
spiritual, may be, and are, obtained in answer to the 
prayer of faith; which would not Le received without 
the prayer. This is entirely consistent with the un- 
changeableness of God. 


IV. 
The condition on which blessings are promised, is that 
they be asked for. “Ask, and ye shall receive.” 
Vv. 


Anything contained in the precepts, promises, or 
prophecies of the Bible—so far as it indicates God’s will 
toward us—may be a proper subject of prayer. 


VI. 


To pray aright, we must ask according to God’s will, 
and we must ask in faith. 


PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT. ite 


VII. 


When we know not what to pray for as we ought, the 
Spirit helpeth our infirmities, and maketh intercession 
for the saints, according to the will of God. 


VIII. 


Under the Spirit’s leadings Christians may pray for 
the supply of their wants and obtain them; for the cure 
of the sick, and they shall be raised up; for rain or for 
sunshine—as these are needed—and have them; for the 
conversion of sinners, and blessings upon_ believers, 
which shall follow accordingly. 


IX, 


As these results follow unfailingly, because the Holy 
Spirit, who inspires the prayer, operates Himself, in na- 
ture or in grace, to bring about the answer. But, except 
when prompted by the Spirit, these prayers will be of no 
avail. 

xa 


If we remain constantly surrendered to God, and look- 
ing to Jesus, He will show us, by the Holy Spirit, when 
and how to pray the true prayer of faith. And this is 
praying in the Holy Ghost. 


XI. 


Prayer should be addressed to the Father, in the name 
of the Son. On some occasions, however, we may 
properly pray directly to Jesus Himself; or even to the 
Holy Spirit. 


214 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


AIT, 


“Lord, what a change within us one short hour 
Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make, 
What heavy burdens from our bosoms take, 

What parched grounds refresh, as with a shower! 

We kneel, and all around us seem to lower; 

We rise, and all, the distant and the near, 
Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear; 

We kneel, how weak; we rise, how full of power! 
Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this.wrong, 
Or others—that we are not always strong, 

That we are ever overborne with care, 

That we should ever weak or heartless be, 

Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer, 

And joy, and strength, and courage are with Thee?” 
—Trench. 


CHAPTER XIT: 
THE SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH. 


ae is by, and through, the Holy Spirit, that Christ 
exercises His Headship over the visible Church. 
Both the service and the worship of God’s people—the 
former typified in the Mosaic ritual by the work of the 
Levites; the latter, by that of the priests—are to be un- 
der the direction of the Holy Spirit. Upon individual 
believers He bestows a variety of gifts, to be exercised 
for the good of the body. And He Himself presides, , 
invisibly but really, over every assembly of true wor- 
shippers. 

Under the former dispensation, the whole congrega- 
tion of Israel made their offerings, and performed their 
worship through the intervention of an anointed priest- 
hood. The whole congregation, likewise performed the 
service of the sanctuary, through the Levites, who were 
purified and set apart, that they might represent all the 
tribes in that special office. “ Be ye clean who bear the 
vessels of the Lord.” And so, we find Priests and 
Levites—the official worshippers and the official workers 
of the chosen people—frequently associated in the sacred 
narrative. 

But the Levitical priesthood, with its offerings and its 
ritual, was abolished when Christ had offered ‘one 
sacrifice for sins forever ;” “had entered in once into the 
holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us,” 


and had “sat down on the right hand of Goc ae 
215 


216 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, 


Nevertheless, God’s people under the Gospel dispen- 
sation, are still a ‘‘ kingdom of priests ;” and the Church 
on earth, by virtue of its union with Christ—the ever- 
living Head, through the Spirit—is invested with both 
regal and priestly dignity. Furthermore, as every indi- 
vidual believer is a priest in God’s kingdom, it follows 
that he can do his own worshipping—nay, must do it; 
for “God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him, must 
worship Him in spirit and in truth.” 

There is no need for the pomp and splendor of an 
outward ritual; and just as little of the intervention of 
a human priesthood, to enable the believer to “ offer up 
spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, through Jesus 
Christ.” Nothing whatever should come between our 
souls and God, but Christ, the great High Priest, who has 
ascended up on high, and “ever Jiveth to make inter- 
cession for us.” True worship is spiritual, and is per- 
formed acceptably wherever the sincere heart is lifted 
up to the Father of Spirits, in adoring gratitude and 
love. 

And is it not sad to see the extent to which the 
equality and priesthood of believers have been lost sight 
of in the Church of Christ? Instead of gathering im- 
mediately to Christ, and seeking the light and power of 
His Spirit, to qualify us to worship Him aright, we must 
still look—virtually, if not actually—to some human 
head or leader, pope or bishop, priest or minister, to do 
our worshipping for us. And we must have buildings, 
splendid in their architecture, and costly in their decora- 
tions; we must have beautiful attractions for the eye, 
and artistic music for the ear; and the time of our pub- 
lic worship must be taken up largely with seeing, and 


THE SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH. 217 


hearing, and doing certain things which have been pre- 
scribed and prearranged by others. 

Now, I am very far from saying that our Heavenly 
Father may not be worshipped acceptably, nor that He 
is not worshipped acceptably by many, in the midst of 
all these accompaniments and surroundings—which, in 
their nature, would appear to be more sensuous than 
spiritual—but I am jealous of the idea, that it is only by 
these accompaniments, and only by human instrumen- 
tality, or under human leadership, that the Church of 
Christ may rightly and properly unite in social worship. 

If Christ by His Spirit, is present with the two or 
three, or any larger number of gathered worshippers, 
then it is to Him, above all and beyond all, that we 
are to look. And, whether in vocal utterances, or in si- 
lent adoration of the humble heart, it is in dependence 
upon Him, and under His guidance that we are to offer 
up true worship. 

Whilst, then, right worship may be in silence, it is not 
necessarily so; nor do I believe that it will often be the 
case that an assembly of Christians, gathered under the 
influence of the Spirit, and every one truly led by Him, 
will perform their worship wholly in silence. For 
whilst the Holy Ghost is ever present, and—as repre- 
senting Christ, the living Head—is always to be sought 
unto first of all, He also graciously bestows His gifts, 
dividing to every man, severally, as He will. And it is, 
especially, when gathered for public worship, that these 
gifts are to be exercised ; sometimes for the profit of the 
whole assembly, sometimes for the special need of indi- 
viduals. 

These gifts, as they existed in the Apostolic age, are 


218 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


enumerated in the twelfth chapter of 1st Corinthians. 
I shall not discuss them here, but leave my reader to ex- 
amine for himself the disquisitions of Christian scholars 
upon the nature and peculiarities of these bestowments 
of the Spirit. 

In the fourth chapter of Ephesians we find the Apos- 
tle employing the following language :—‘‘And He gaye 
some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, 
and some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the 
saints; for the work of the ministry; for the edifying 
of the body of Christ.” I infer from these inspired 
words, that God gives to His Church, in every age, gifted 
men and women, whose calling and qualification are 
from the Holy Spirit, and who, under His guidance and 
direction, may “prophesy” or preach, with the result— 
by Divine grace—of converting sinners and strengthen- 
ing believers. 

I use the phrase men and women advisedly, because, 
here again, the Church of Christ has been, and continues 
to be, quite too slow of heart to accept the fact that 
“there is neither Jew nor Greek ; there is neither bond 
nor free; there is neither male nor female, but ye are all 
one in Christ Jesus.” By so doing, she is evidently 
limiting the Holy One, who pours out His Spirit upon 
daughters as well as sons, handmaidens as well as ser- 
vants—that they may prophesy. I shall not argue the 
question, but simply express my firm belief that the au- 
thority of Holy Scripture, and the example of the 
early Church, recognize the ministry of women, and 
place it on precisely the same ground as that of men; 
and that is—the calling and qualification of the 


Spirit. 


THE SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH. 919 


The “apostles” and “prophets” spake to the men of 
their own generation, and under the inspiration of the 
Holy Ghost, they wrote the Books of the Bible, through 
which they continue to speak to the men of all genera- 
tions. The apostolic and prophetic gifts—as they were 
possessed by the writers of Holy Scripture—have ceased 
to exist in the Church. Since the Book of Revelation 
was written, no man has claimed, or could justly claim, 
that he was inspired in the same sense in which the 
writers of the Bible were inspired. 

But evangelists, pastors, and teachers are still con- 
tinued to the Church. The evangelist preaches glad 
tidings. He proclaims salvation through a crucified and 
risen Lord. When baptized with the Holy Ghost, He 
speaks, as with a tongue of fire, to the unregenerate ; 
and the thing he is engaged about, above all things else, 
is the conversion of sinners. 

Pastors and teachers, on the other hand, though re- 
ceiving their qualification from the same Spirit who en- 
ergizes the evangelist, are especially concerned, and em- 
powered, to build up believers in the most holy faith ; to 
administer milk to babes, and strong meat to strong men; 
to impart new truth to the inexperienced Christian; to 
expound the Holy Scriptures; to reprove, rebuke, ex- 
hort, with all long-suffering and doctrine. 

_ The evangelist, the pastor, and the teacher, are not un- 
frequently combined in the same individual, but oftener 
this is not the case; and it is very important for every 
one to keep to his own gift—improve it, grow in it, and 
use it to the glory of God, and the good of the Church ; 
whilst he should not be seeking, restlessly, to imitate 
others, or mistakenly suppose that he must be, and do, 


220 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


in all things like those whose gifts may be wholly differ- 
ent from his own. 

On the other hand, a Christian believer who is dili- 
gently occupying the gift which the Holy Spirit has be- 
stowed upon him, must not judge another who is led, it 
may be, by the same Spirit into a line of service entirely 
different from that to which he may feel called. Every 
one’s proper business is, not to be inquiring, “ What shall 
this man do?” but, to be carefully heeding the injunc- 
tion—“ Follow thou me!” 

Prophesying, or preaching, is ranked by Paul as the 
highest of the gifts of the Spirit; and this consists in 
power to speak for “exhortation, edification, and com- 
fort.” He tells us, especially, to covet this gift. And 
Moses was of the same mind, when he said :—“ I would 
to God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that 
the Lord would put His Spirit upon them.” 

The call and qualification for the ministry, then, are 
from the Holy Ghost. It may be given to, and exer- 
cised by, the same or different individuals, in the way of 
evangelizing, teaching, exhorting, edifying, or comfort- 
ing; but the Spirit gives power and unction to the truths 
which are spoken, and renders them effective in persuad- 
ing and influencing the minds of the hearers. 

Now, when the Church is assembled for public wor- 
ship, there is a special opportunity, as well as a peculiar 
fitness, for the exercise of these various gifts of the Spirit. 
First and foremost, however, let the minds and hearts of 
the worshippers be gathered to Christ Himself, who, by 
His Holy Spirit, meets with them according to His own 
_ gracious promise, and is their real though invisible Head. 
Let the attitude of the soul be an attitude of receptivity 


THE SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH. 22 


and expectancy ; and let every one say with the Psalmist 
—* My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expecta- 
tion is from Him.” 

A mecting thus gathered in the name of Jesus, and 
consisting entirely of Christian believers, will sometimes 
find that they are tendered, and strengthened, and in- 
structed, and comforted, and edified by the direct work- 
ing of the Holy Spirit Himself upon their hearts; and 
without any human ministry whatever. Sir Thomas 
Fowell Buxton called such precious seasons of stillness 
and waiting upon God “divine silence.” 

I proceed now to state that the Spirit in the Church 
is the great Unifier. 

All true fellowship between individual believers— 
and the word implies union of heart and purpose—is 
the “fellowship of the Spirit.” “Our fellowship,” says 
the Apostle, “is with the Father and with His Son 
Jesus Christ.” And the Spirit is striving still to bring 
all God’s children into that blessed fellowship with the 
Father, and with the Son, and with each other. “If 
we walk in the light [of the Spirit] we have fellowship 
one with another.” 

And as Christ, dwelling in the heart of the believer 
by faith, and strengthening him by His Spirit in the 
inner man, is the foundation for union and fellowship 
between individual Christians, so it is the Spirit abiding 
in the Church that is to form the basis of union between 
the sects. 

The doctrine of holiness is sometimes accused by its 
opposers of tending to divide and distract the Church of 
Christ. But Gospel holiness is the work of the in- 
dwelling Spirit, and surely it cannot be said of Him 


O27, THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


that He is the author of heresies, divisions, or schisms 
among God’s people. 

The Church has undergone many lamentable divi- 
sions and separations, it is true, but it was not so much 
because of its holiness as because it wanted more holi- 
ness. 

As individual Christians and Christian sects are bap- 
tized with the Holy Ghost they are brought nearer to 
Christ, and, like the radii of a circle or the spokes of a 
wheel, as they get nearer the Centre they’get nearer to 
each other. Their union is in Christ, and in Him alone 
through the Spirit. 

I do not see any sufficient reason to accept the views 
of those who suppose that the Church of Christ on earth 
must, during the present dispensation, become unde- 
nominational, 7. ¢., that all sects of Christians must be 
merged into one outward and visible Church. God’s 
chosen people of old were twelve tribes, but one Israel. 
In like manner His people now are denominations, but 
one Church. I do not know why it should not con- 
tinue to be so, until the Son of Man cometh in His 
kingdom. 

And when the Israelites marched, or when they en- 
camped, it was not in disorder, nor at random. Every 
tribe had its own place assigned in the march, in the 
battle, and in the encampment; and every man was to 
march, to fight, and to pitch his tent under his own 
standard, and with his own tribe. ‘There was beauty, 
there was order, there was strength. But the secret of 
it all was that God dwelt in the tabernacle, and the 
tabernacle was in their very midst. 

And when the prophet, covetous of Balak’s gold, 


THE SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH. DS 


would fain have cursed this Israel of God, when he 
even changed his position again and again that he might 
see them from a different stand-point, if peradventure 
Le might curse them from thence, on every occasion the 
curse was changed into a blessing in his mouth, and he 
was compelled to exclaim, “‘ How goodly are thy tents, 
O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the val- 
leys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river’s side, 
as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, 
and as cedar trees beside the waters ;” nay, even to peti- 
tion for himself, “ Let me die the death of the righteous, 
and let my last end be like his.” 

Beautiful in their encampment, terrible in their march, 
irresistible in their attack upon their enemies—such 
were the Israelites of old when the Lord dwelt among 
them. 

And such would the Church of Christ be now, if 
thoroughly baptized, and filled, and abode in by the 
Holy Spirit. She would indeed be “ beautiful for situ- 
ation, the joy of the whole earth, fair to look upon.” 
And she would be to the enemies of God and His truth 
“terrible as an army with banners.” And the attempts, 
which might be made from many different stand-points, 
to curse her would all be in vain, so that even her ene- 
mies would be compelled to acknowledge with Balaam, 
“ How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy taberna- 
cles, O Israel.” “Let me die the death of the righteous, 
and let my last end be like his.” 

And is not the good time coming and nigh at hand? 
Is not the Holy Spirit indeed taking possession of the 
Church to a larger extent than ever before, since 
Apostolic times? The dividing lines between different 


224 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


sects of Christians have hitherto been too much like high 
walls of separation, across which they could only shoot 
arrows at each other. Now they are becoming, as I 
trust, more like low hedges, across which they can shake 
hands and wish each*other God-speed on their heaven- 
ward journey. 

Moreover, instead of spending their time and their 
talent, their brain-power and their learning, in contro- 
versies and persecutions, instead of waging angry and 
interminable wars with each other, they are beginning 
to see that it is no longer the province of Ephraim to 
vex Judah, nor of Judah to judge Ephraim, but Judah 
and Ephraim are to unite with each other, and with the 
other tribes, in smiting the common enemies of God and 
of Israel, and, shoulder to shoulder with one common 
front, they are to wage war with Amalek, the Canaanite, 
or the Philistine, as the case may be. 

Yes, beloved, we are living in the Dispensation of the 
Holy Ghost. May He be received by faith to dwell in 
the hearts of believers, and to vivify,and unify, and 
sanctify, and energize the Church, until Jerusalem shall 
indeed be a praise in the earth, and millions shall be 
gathered into the fold of Christ. Gird up your loins, ye 
servants of the living God, and run like Elijah of 
old. “There is a sound of abundance of rain.” | 


Or 


THE SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH. 2? 


REMARKS. 


I. 


Christ, by the Holy Spirit, exercises His Headship 
over the visible Church. 


II. 


Christ, by the Holy Spirit, meets with every assembly 
that is gathered in His name. 


ITI. 


All true worship is performed in spirit and in truth, 
Tt may be either with or without vocal exercises. 


IV. 


The Holy Spirit, if waited upon and sought unto, 
will rightly direct all the exercises of the worshipping 
assembly. 

Vv. 

The gifts of the Spirit may be rightly exercised under 

His direction in the assembled Church. 


VI. 


The call and qualification for the ministry of the 
Gospel are from God alone. But while the Church has 
no power or authority to make a man a minister, it may 
rightly recognize the gift he has received and record him 


a minister. 
VII. 


nw 


The gift of the ministry may include evangelizing, 
teaching, and prophesying, which is speaking for exhor- 
tation, edification, or comfort. 

15 


226 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


VI. 


The priesthood, equality, and brotherhood of believers 
result from the headship of Christ over His Church, 


IX. 


A one-man ministry is not taught in the Bible. 


X. 


Women, as well as men, may be, and are, called and 
anointed by the Holy Ghost for the work of the min- 
istry. 

XI. 

Preaching, praying, singing, and reading the Scrip- 
tures are all appropriate and edifying acts of public 
worship, when engaged in under the leadings of the 
Holy Spirit. 

XII. 

Christian believers who have been baptized with the 
Holy Ghost are brought into fellowship with the Father, 
and the Son, and with one another. 


DG IE 


The Holy Spirit in the Church of Christ binds to- 
gether the different sects of believers in the acceptance 
of a common salvation, and harmonizes them In a com- 
mon purpose to extend the Redeemer’s kingdom. 


THE SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH. 220 


CONCLUSIONS. 


The offices of the Holy Spirit, as treated of in this 
book, may be summed up as follows: 


I, 


The Holy Spirit operates upon the hearts of sinners, to 
awaken them, to convince them of sin, to lead them to 
repentance, and to enable them to believe in Jesus. In 
direct connection with their justification He also, by His 
own divine energy, regenerates them. 


As 


Having now become children of God by the new 
birth the Spirit witnesses to their adoption. 


Il. 


The Spirit dwells with the justified believer, strengthen- 
ing him in the Lord, enabling him to grow in grace, 
showing him the remains of the carnal nature still exist- 
ing, and causing him earnestly to desire a clean heart. 


Vi< 


When the believer, following the Holy Spirit’s lead- 
ings and receiving His divine aid, consecrates himself to 
the Lord and trusts fully in His promises, he receives 
the baptism with the Holy Ghost. 


Vv. 


As the results of this baptism, the Holy Spirit “ puri- 
fies the heart by faith,’ endues him with power, fills 
him, and abides in him, 


228 THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


Vals 


The in-dwelling Spirit operates in the heart of the 
sanctified believer as a teacher, guide, strengthener, com- 
forter, expounder of the Scriptures, and glorifier of 
Jesus. 

Vs 


The Holy Spirit gives us the true spirit of prayer, en- 
abling us to pray believingly, to have the petitions that 
He leads us to desire, to “ask and receive that our joy 
may be full.” 

Vil. 


By the Holy Spirit Christ exercises His Headship 
and authority in the Church. The Spirit leads and 
directs all true worship, and imparts His gifts to indi- 
vidual members, male or female. By the exercise of 
these gifts, God is glorified and the Church edified. 


And now let all my beloved readers unite with me in 
the ascription of heartfelt praise to the Father, the Son, 


and the Holy Ghost. 
AMEN. 


FINIS. 


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